The Freak
by unstoppable624
Summary: Yes Maddox comes in this. Will this become a continuing story. Only if you want it to. OC x Gaige because I'm bored.
1. Chapter 1

**So, uh hi. I haven't been on in a long time. But I've been playing Borderlands a lot and wanted to write this. I don't know if it's any good. But I'm adding in a OC. I figured that if I was going to make my own storyline I'd add a character in. I added in this new character and he's very different as revealed in this chapter. Gaige in canon is 16, so she's 16 in this. Not much else. So I guess read.**

Chapter 1: Introducing The Crew

A lone platform raised elevated above the scorching sands of the Pandorian desert. A railway a few feet away from the platform was held by various beams. A figure stood next to the bench.

He stood around 6ft tall, he wore a hood over his head and had a mask to protect his face from the blowing sand. He wore a black jacket and the hood was black. His mask was black and it's visors were red and slightly illuminated the dark night around him. He wore camouflage genes and had on running shoes that were black in color.

"Train approaching, please stand back." The female voice came from a speaker near the bench. The 18 year old watched as the Hyperion train began to slow to a stop.

One of the doors began to open and he walked in and looked around the dimly lit room around him. There were 6 others in the same room.

One was a young man that looked like he was a military man. Another was a siren as he noted with the blue tattoos on the left side of her body. There was also a short man, with a lot of black hair around his head.

On the other side stood a limber figure that had a bodysuit and had 0 on the left side of his? Her chest? There was also a creepy looking man standing behind him, he had a mask and from the looks of his eyes showed he wasn't completely there. Finally there was a young girl, she had red hair tied into pigtails and her left arm was cybernetic.

He noticed all of their uneasy looks, except for the creepy psycho who just stared at him with his one unmasked eye. The figure took off his mask and unclipped the hood from his jacket and they destructed. A look of confusion crossed the Siren's face as the red glow of the destruct faded away, and her face turned neutral. The young man had hazel eyes and dirty blonde hair on his somewhat tanned head.

Everyone's faces became somewhat relieved that this new guy wasn't aggressive or making aggressive movements.

The short one spoke up, "Hey there amigo, the name's Salvador."

"It's Maddox." The newcomer said.

"I'm Maya," the Siren greeted.

"Zero." The figure in the suit said. Maddox went ahead and assumed it was a him.

"I'm Axton, used to serve in the military." He greeted.

"I'M THE CONDUCTOR OF THE POOP TRAIN!" the psycho said.

"Uh…What's his actual name?" Maddox asked.

"His name is Krieg." The Siren told him.

"I'm Gaige." The young girl said holding out her right hand. Maddox shook her hand and went on ahead and leaned against the wall.

The train ride was silent for a long while. Nothing eventful was happening, Maddox peeked outside the window seeing snow was in place of the desert sands he had been in earlier.

Suddenly, the train jolted a little bit. Nobody paid much notice, thinking it was the train switching rails. Suddenly a wall burst open and Hyperion Loaders came from the other car and started firing on them.

Axton immediately ducked and deployed a turret that began to shoot the loaders.

Maya's tattoos glowed blue and a loader became trapped in a ball of purplish energy.

Salvador swung in from a hole in the side and pulled out two guns and released a barrage of bullets on the enemies.

Zero jumped through the ceiling and a engineer tried to punch him but his fist only went through a hologram. Zero then stabbed one all the way to the hilt and he jumped over him and kicked another engineer so that they were impaled by the same sword.

Krieg took out a buzz axe and ran towards the loaders and began tearing them apart.

Gaige then raised her left arm and a hovering robot digistructed. The robot went and began to help Krieg by slashing at them or using his eye laser.

Maddox eyes began to glow red and and suddenly he turned into a black cloud and of dust and entered into the remaining loaders. The loaders shut down for a few seconds. Suddenly they all sprung to life but were not making any aggressive actions.

Then an awesome loader stormed in and all of the smaller loaders began firing at it. The smaller loaders managed to knock off one of the arms but were quickly taken out. The black dust cloud then reformed as Maddox and he ran towards the larger one and a double sided glowing red sword ejected out of his wrist and he jumped over slicing it's arm off with ease. Then his other arm turned into a cannon and shot a large hole through the loader.

Gaige heard a noise and ran towards the other side of the car, she opened the door and a fake bloodied body turned in a chair with various explosives sticking out of the Handsome Jack replica.

"BOMB!" She shouted half scared herself.

Out of instinct Maddox caused a red shield to surround the 7 of them just before the explosion took place.

Maddox vision was blurry, he felt around finding that he was nearly buried in the snow. Once his vision cleared he got up and looked around for everyone else. Krieg was leaning against a snow pile, not making any movements. Maya was laying on the ground. Zero somehow was still inside the wreckage of the train. Axton was on top of Salvador. Maddox looked around for the remaining person. He saw a shine of metal coming from the pile of snow next to him. Maddox bent over and dug slightly around it. Finding it was just a piece of train metal.

Maddox heard something began to move and looked in the direction of the sound. A small Hyperion robot that moved with it's single wheel rolled around with a shovel. Maddox ducked down into the snow, preparing to take out the robot before it would notice his presence. Maddox then felt cold metal touch his arm. Out of instinct Maddox made his arm superheat and the snow around him quickly evaporated.

"Ow, ow, ow, why was that so hot.?" Maddox heard a young girl say. Maddox looked up and saw it was Gaige holding her arm. She hadn't even noticed he was there. Maddox noticed the small piece of metal he found earlier was lodged in her human arm. Her arm trickled with blood, and she carefully grabbed the Metal chunk with her other arm.

"Don't!" Maddox whispered. She jumped at the sound.

"Why no-" She began to ask half whining because she wanted the pain from her arm to be removed.

Maddox covered her mouth with his hand and before she could protest he pointed to the small robot rolling around.

She understood and layed down. Maddox crawled onto the other side of her where her severely bleeding arm was. He knew she was facing a large amount of discomfort and pain but yet she was fighting it pretty well. Maddox hovered his hand over the piece of metal and his eyes glowed red as did his hands. The piece of metal began to turn to dust and flew out of the wound. The cut was at least a fingernail deep.

Gaige was surprised at how painless the removal was and was even more surprised when her wound began to instantly heal.

"You want it to scar?" he asked quietly.

"I… uh, I guess." Gaige answered seeing he had a surprise every second she met him. Sure enough the wound scarred instead of completely healing. They both silently watched the robot roll around digging up corpses with its shovel. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Salvador stir. Because Salvador was under Axton, Salvador pushed him off and got up. Axton woke up and looked confused at what was going on.

"Oh look, another dead Vault Hunter, Jack's been busy." The little robot said as he stuffed the shovel into the ground. His high pitched voice woke Maya and she began to get up. "Wait you're not dead!. Yes my ticket off this glacier has finally arrived!"

Krieg woke up and decided to stand on top of the snow mound he was unconscious on a few moments ago. "BIG METAL BOX GO BOOM!" he shouted at the top of his lungs. This shout was loud enough that Zero began to regain consciousness.

"Woah you all survived?!, yes I now have my own minion army. I'm CL4P-TP, but my friends just call me Clap Trap… that is… if I had any friends. Now follow me." Maddox and Gaige had already gotten up and began to follow the robot. "Oh right I almost forgot, here's an echo communicator." Clap Trap said giving everyone a echo device.

Maddox looked at his echo device and wasn't really sure what to do with it. "Is everything alright?" Axton asked.

"I've never used one of these, what's it for?" Maddox asked.

"Have you been living under a rock this entire time?" Gaige asked looking at him like he was crazy.

"I've only been on Pandora for a week." Maddox revealed.

"Ok? I just got here two days ago and I know what it is." Gaige countered. "These aren't just on Pandora."

"Oh… I guess my planet never got any."

"Oh, what planet are you from amigo?" Sal asked.

"I'm from Rehtona Noisnemid."

"Rehtona Noisnemid/ A mysterious name/ Never heard of." Zero spoke.

"That doesn't surprise me, it's a fairly rural world, out in the outer colonies. Not as bad as Pandora but we're not very high in tech."

Maya looked confused for a second. "Did anyone else just get that?"

"Get wha-" Maddox began to ask.

"BRIGHT LIGHT! ANOTHER VOICE IN MY HEAD!" Krieg shouted.

"Yea, I just got it too. Some girl said she'd explain everything later and that we are alive for a reason." Axton confirmed.

"Minions! Over here!" Clap Trap shouted from a distance.

Everybody ran and caught up with the Steward robot. He then stood in front of a scanner. "Aaaand open." A door opened up leading into a place where they assumed he lived.

"Sorry about the extra security keeps Bullymongs out." They all followed him in. "This is my home, a lot more cozy than it is out there."

His home was definitely more cozy than they expected there was a small table with money and cards a few cabinets around and lots of offline clap trap units. There was even a couch near a furnace where it's pipe was going out of the ceiling and a massive Bullymong coming down the top of-

Wait there's a giant Bullymong climbing down the pipe. The beast grabbed Clap Trap and ripped his eye out. Maddox was the first to react making his arm turn into a cannon however as the Bullymong escaped he hit part of the pipe that began to collapse and fall into the home. Everyone got out of the way of the falling pipe except for Madoox, as part of it had landed on his arm tearing it off.

Maddox got up and didn't seem to notice nor care he was missing an arm. "Maddox your arm is… wait why aren't you bleeding or at least acting like it hurt? Are you a robot?" Gaige asked looking impressed and confused at the same time.

"Oh… yea I didn't even know it was off. I'm not really human, not anymore at least. I'm a freak not a robot."

"So then what are you?" Maya questioned.

"I'm more of a freak that's pretty much it. I've never met anyone like me. But I'm organic… I think."

"Not human or machine/ a unique species/ are you Eridian." Zero said in his haiku.

"I'm definitely not Eridian. I know there is at least one more out there like me. I just don't know where to find him or her. The Eridians are extinct."

"Wooaah, that is so dope." Gaige said. "There could be another you, and what if he's on Pandora?"

"That's one of the reasons I'm here. Of the clues I found he's somewhere here. But that's all I got." Maddox confirmed. "Anyways we should probably stop standing here and open the cabinet that Clappy keeps mentioning."

Maya nodded and opened the cabinet. "There's money, some med hypos and one repeater gun. Does anyone already have a weapon?" Everyone shook their heads. "Ok let's look around for anything useful and get going."

"Found some money." Axton said.

"Same here." Maya answered.

"I just found a Negotiator." Sal celebrated.

"Anaconda." Zero said holding a pistol.

"Got some ammo." Gaige said

"SHINY CASE!" Krieg said holding up ammo.

"Money." Maddox said.

"That's everything. Let's get going." Axton said.

"Alright just follow me and we'll get my eye back."

 **Probably figured it out, but I'm not good at talking Psycho, or Haiku. I try my best. I'm also not familiar with a lot of the items so I kinda just have the basic names for the weapons. Now this is very important, there are no New-U stations in this. One reason is if a character is going to die, they are dead dead. No rrrrrespawn. One more thing, as you can tell Maddox can still use his ability, there is a reason for that which I plan to reveal in later chapters. The others don't realize that they can't use their's yet.**

 **Inventory Update**

 **Axton**

 **none**

 **Maya**

 **Dahl Pistol- Repeater**

 **Salavador**

 **Dahl Pistol- Repeater**

 **Zero**

 **Dalh Pistol- Anaconda**

 **Gaige**

 **none**

 **Krieg**

 **none**

 **Maddox**

 **none**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey guys and girls here with the second chapter. I was suprised i got this done today, but It's the weekend** **so I should have known. So maybe some of you are thinking that Maddox might be a little OP. Well don't worry, this chapter I revealed one of his major setbacks. Nothing much else. So have fun reading. If you think reading this is fun. If not then I understand, don't think I'm good anyways.**

Chapter 2: First Timer

"Mhph nphm mph." Maddox pulled Clap Trap out of the snow and set him upright.

"Many thanks friend of friends." Clap Trap thanked him.

Maddox looked around seeing everyone was lost in thought. "Weird bright light talking to you guys again?"

"No, Jackie contacted us." Sal answered.

"Pumpkin?!" Gaige asked confused.

"This Jack guy is really weird." Maddox shook his head.

"Weird? He tried to kill us. I think that passes weird." Axton deadpanned.

"I've had lots of people try to kill me. No one has ever thought to trap me in a train then make it go boom boom. Honestly I think it's kinda weird. I've had maybe one weirder instance that was kinda similar." Maddox said thoughtfully.

"Well how about you tells us later. We need to get Clappy's eye back." Gaige said.

"You stole my nickname."

She snickered. "Sucks to be you."

"At least I can use my ability still." Maddox boasted.

"I still don't understand why you can and rest of us can't."

"That's enough." Maya commanded. "You two are fighting like teenagers."

"I am a teenager." Gaige said proudly.

"To be fair, I never finished high school." Maddox said. "Got out early freshmen year."

"How? I'm a-" Gaige became intrigued.

"How about we figure it out later and get going." Maya said about to lose her temper.

"Aaaand open." Clap Trap said as he ran into a door that opened causing it to act like a bridge across a small gap that was the only way over the ledge.

"Ooh. My just switched back on. I see tough looking minions and a handsome robot. Which means whoever has my eye… is very close." The giant Bullymong jumped down and grabbed a runner and began to throw it straight at Maddox.

"This is gonna hurt." Maddox said as the runner smashed into him.

"Krieg, get Axton and Gaige away, they don't have a way to defend themselves." Maya told the giant Psycho.

Krieg nodded and grabbed Axton and Gaige and ran back down on the other side of the ridge. "PRETTY LADY SAID SO."

Axton nodded and Gaige pouted. "I think I can handle a big oversized bully."

"With what?" Axton asked.

"I… uh I'll come up with something." Gaige said stubborn as ever.

Maddox stumbled around behind them headless. His head reformed. "Yea, don't worry about me. I'm fine." Maddox said holding his head. "Man that always gives me a headache." He whispered as he shook his head and ran up to where the battle was taking place.

Maya was behind the 'Mong while it was about to thrash at Sal. Zero jumped on top of it and tried to drive his blade through it, however its hide was too thick to cause a fatal wound. The mong shrugged him off and jumped onto the top of the ice cliff and he roared causing other smaller 'Mongs to attack the four. The three with their Dahl pistols stood back to back as they try to fend off waves of 'Mongs.

"Maddox, could you do something about the big one?" Maya asked him.

"Yea, you know before we run out of ammo." Sal said slightly panicked.

Maddox ran over to the wall and the bottom of his shoes glowed red as he stuck to the wall and ran up the side. His eyes blinked red for a second. When he made it to the top he grabbed the mong by its beard. His other hand formed the dual bade and the plasma cut through its hide with no problem.

The mong roared in pain and grabbed Maddox and slammed him on the ground. The mong lifted its arms to crush him, but Maddox put a hard light wall. The only thing between him and getting crushed. The mong applied more force and Maddox felt the wall grow weaker as his eyes blinked red again.

"No no no. Now is not the time to run out." Maddox heaved the mong off and jumped on top and plunged the slowly dissipating blade into its heart. Maddox collapsed onto the mong out of breath and tired. He pushed the heavy mong onto the smaller mongs that were surrounding the three that were nearly out of ammo. When the mong fell various objects come unbound from the ice.

"You plan on coming down?" Sal asked.

"No, I think I'll just chill up here for now." Maddox said as he sat on the edge as leaned forward and felt his eyes go droopy. Maddox began to plummet from the cliff and landed on the ice with a thud.

"Crap! Maddox are you ok?" Maya asked concerned. Maddox removed unmoving. "Guys Maddox is hurt, or something." Everyone else rushed over. They turned him over. Looking for a wound, however they found none. Axton tapped his cheek, "Come bud wake up, sleep time is over."

"We need to move/ more may come/ someone will carry him"

Krieg bent over and picked Maddox up and put him over his shoulder.

"Looks like a lot of stuff was unlodged from the ice when the Mong fell onto the ice.

"Hey, Zero just found a Callipeen sniper rifle. I'll give you this if I get the pistol" Axtons offered his trade.

Zero gave him the Anaconda as Zero got his Callipeen

"Money." Maya announced.

"Same here." Sal said.

"Money as well." Zero said.

"GREEN PAPER!" Krieg yelled.

"No way. I just found an Incendiary Launcher." Gaige said holding up a rocket launcher.

"Should we let the kid wield the explosive?" Axton asked. However no-one answered.

"Gaige, I think that's it there's nothing else." Maya called to her.

Gaige continued to look around. "I'm just looking for something for Ox."

"Ox?" Salvador furrowed his brow.

"I think she means Maddox." Axton answered him.

Gaige gave up and looked on the ground one last time. She bent over and picked up some cash she found hidden under a mong.

"Got my eye? Great, as much as you'd like to jam your fist into my face that job is for professionals. I know a guy named Hammerlock who's over in Liar's Berg past this barge right here."

The robot stood in front of a scanner. "Aaaand open." The scanner scanned him.

"Intruders detected, locking door." The Hyperion AI said. The door became reinforced and locked them outside.

Clap Trap turned around and said. "Well it was nice knowing ya. I hear getting eaten by Bullymongs isn't such a bad way to go."

"Here, let me get that for you." The woman from the bright light said. "Initiating phase shift."

The door opened and they all walked in. "Perks of being an AI, I'm wired into almost everything on the planet." that now known AI continued. "Please take whatever you need for the journey ahead, it's a long way to sanctuary."

Gaige walked up to the case in the middle of the room. She pressed a button and a shotgun was inside.

"Hey Krieg, you can have the launcher. I'm taking this shotgun." She said as she gave him the launcher and picked up the Longrider. She glanced at Maddox who was still unconscious and sitting on the floor. He had no wounds and none of them knew what was wrong with him. Gaige looked outside, seeing it was late at night and saw everyone else was starting to doze off into their sleep. She decided to do the same. She climbed onto a beam and propped herself against it and slowly the sleep came upon her.

 **3 years before Maddox comes to Pandora…**

"X-437." A girl stepped up to take her turn through the death trap.

"Maddox, get ready," another girl whispered in his ear.

"For what?" He asked back. His question was soon answered when he heard the sickening sound of cutting flesh. The girl was just a second too slow and her abdomen received a nasty gash. She fell over onto her back. In the middle of the course. We all knew if she didn't receive help, she would bleed to death. Ivan didn't care, he just left the timer running and the score counting slowly down. The obstacle course kept on running.

Now Maddox knew what he needed to be ready for. He needed to save her. Without a second thought, he ran forward and suddenly...turned into a dust cloud. The cloud moved through the course and caught up to the limp body of the girl. The dust surrounded her and picked her up and she as well turned to dust. Maddox's dust cloud was the obvious black in color. While her's was what she was wearing and her pale skin color. The dust cloud came back through the course and she reformed into the same condition out of harm's way. But for Maddox...It was a different story. He reformed back to himself. But his eyes blinked red more rapidly and much more violent. He collapsed to the ground. He felt fatigued, and very tired.

 **Present time**

Maddox jerked forward and held his chest and looked around. They were in Liar's Berg. Bullymong corpses were everywhere along with some bandit corpses. The battle was still going on, Maddox heard shots in the distance, he got up and ran towards the shots, he saw Gaige shakily holding a shotgun, she was on her knees. A dead bandit rested in front of her.

The rest celebrated their victory, while Gaige was frozen, she dropped the shotgun. "Nice kill Gaige, dumb Marauder never saw it coming." Axton congratulated her. Gaige didn't respond, she made no movement. "Gaige?" Axton prompted.

Maddox walked over to her, already suspecting the problem. He knelt down beside her. "You want to talk about it?" Maddox asked her.

She slowly nodded. Barely acknowledging his presence. "Can we go somewhere a little more… secluded?" she hesitantly spoke, her voice quiet, trying not to break.

Maddox nodded and got up started to walk back towards the barge which was on a hill that overlooked the town. Gaige followed him and they sat on a ledge getting a good view of the Berg.

"Was that your first time?" Maddox asked her.

"Y-yes." She responded quietly. "When I came here, to Pandora, I thought I could just have Death Trap kill everything for me. He's uh he's my robot. I didn't think he'd stop working and I hope I can find a way to fix him but, I never thought I'd need to-to kill another person."

"Yea. But things don't always go according to plan. I know personally."

"How is it you can kill without hesitation?"

"I think I can because of a lot of reasons, but I think the main reason is I'm kinda used to it."

"But you've only been on Pandora for a week. Do you get used to it that fast?"

"I'm going to tell you some things, that not a lot of people know. I've been killing for three years. Not because I thought it was fun, because I needed to so I could survive."

"Three years, you're what 18? That means you started-"

"When I was 15, yes. My very first kill, I was only 15."

"That's why you dropped out of high school."

"Kinda, I was out of it because I became what I am now. A freak. I was human, then a meteorite landed on me, changed who I was altered everything about me. I became whatever freak of nature I am now."

"How did you handle your first kill?"

"To be honest, I still remember his face, his lifeful eyes, instantly becoming lifeless. I also remember everyone after that. In just three years I've killed hundreds, maybe thousands of people to survive and protect those I care about."

"So, I may never get over it?"

"You may never get over it, but at least you don't know what he looked like, and this guy you killed probably killed for the fun of it. The guy I killed, he was just doing what he was told to do, told by his superior. Thought he was doing the right thing. Anyways, why did you drop out of high school? You don't need to tell me, I was just curious."

"Well, you told me a bit about your past, might as well tell some of mine. It was a science fair. I made a more down version of DT. Then this other girl, named Marcie stole my design. So I upgraded DT to what he is now, he was built for anti-bullying. Yet Marcie still one, her dad paid off the judges and she got 1st place. Marcie taunted me, then pushed me. DT recognized it as bullying and… next thing I knew I was covered in blood and every one in the science fair saw it." Gaige took a deep breath. Looking down at the town and watched the power turn on.

"I guess we are fairly alike."

"Yea… I guess we kinda are."

The two sat in silence. Neither wanting to say anything and just watched as the other 5 Vault Hunters ran around the town probably looting the bodies.

"Thank you." Gaige said as she looked at Maddox. "I don't think any of them down there could have helped me better than you could."

Maddox sighed. "Well, we're the youngest of all of them, we gotta stick together, help each other when one is down. We're a team." Maddox paused for a long while. "Now that I think about it, it's been a long time since I've fought with a team that didn't stab me in the back."

"I don't mean to discourage you, but we could very easily stab you in the back. We just met yesterday."

"Yea… guess you could. I'm going to head back down. See if they need anything."

"Oh right I almost forgot." Gaige pulled some money out of her pocket. "Figured you should get something for taking out the big guy. Btw what happened to you? You completely shut down."

"Thanks, I tend to run out of energy. If I go to long without a recharge or use too much at one time. I start shutting down. If you thought that was bad, if I don't find a way to recharge I may shut down completely."

 **So there you guys have it, his major weakness is he can't run too long without a recharge. Now if you came from or have read where he appears in my RWBY fanfiction he had a charger. In this he does not and I found a different substitute that either was a coincidence or just really lucky planning on my part. Anyways see you later.**

 **Iventory Update:**

 **Axton**

 **Anaconda**

 **Dahl Pistol**

 **Maya**

 **Repeater**

 **Dahl Pistol**

 **Salvador**

 **Negotiator**

 **Dahl Pistol**

 **Zero**

 **Callipeen**

 **Jakob Sniper Rifle**

 **Gaige**

 **Longrider**

 **Jakob Shotgun**

 **Krieg**

 **Incendiary Launcher**

 **Bandit Rocket Launcher**

 **Maddox**

 **none**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hi, sorry I haven't updated since Sunday. I had to find room in my schedule since it's no longer the weekend and I haven't really written a dedicated story while it's a school week. Couple things I should mention. First all of the loot I have the characters collect is decided by a random number generator so like 1 = money, and 4 = a piece of equipment. (Gun, shield, relic, mod, grenade.) Of course missions will give the loot you'd actually get in the game. So in this there's a a segment I found entertaing that happened to have come up because of a lucky number genaration. Second there are fast travel stations, but there is no New-U program installed. Only acts like a fast travel station. That's it so have fun.**

Chapter 3: Guns Can be Grenades

"You guys need help with anything?" Maddox asked Axton.

"Nah, I think we're good now. Hammerlock went in his house to get a shield for one of us." Axton said.

"Who?"

"Oh right, you haven't met him yet. He should be outside any minute. Oh, uh how's Gaige doing? She didn't look all that well."

"It was her first kill. She's trying not to break down. Even if it was a guy who probably has no care what happened to anyone. She still feels guilt for taking him out like that. Just something she'll need to adjust to."

"Ooh that's rough. I didn't handle my first kill very well either."

"Yea, I told her the same thing about me. Seemed to help a little bit." Maddox said as he started backing up to walk away.

"Oh, hey before you go. I just remembered. I scavenged these right after the battle so go ahead and gives these out to the rest. This Biggun is for Maya. Give Sal this ammo. Zero gets this money. Gaige gets this Med Hypo. Krieg gets this money. You can keep this money."

"But I didn't do anything."

"We wouldn't be here if you didn't kill the Mong back there."

"Oh, thanks. What did you get?"

"I'm keeping this Med Hypo."

"Noice. I'm going to deliver these now."

"Alright see ya." Axton waved.

"Later." Maddox saluted back.

Maddox walked around and found Maya.

"Maya." She turned towards him. Krieg was standing nearby. Watching him carefully. Sending a chill down Maddox's spine. That is, if he had one. "This Biggun is for you. Axton already looted everything."

"Oh ok… wait do you have a gun. Besides your ability?" Maya asked.

"Um, no actually."

"You can keep the gun. Just give me what you earned."

Maddox handed her money and turned to Krieg to give him his. Maddox saw Zero on a rooftop. Surveying the area with his new Sniper.

Maddox climbed up to the rooftop and gave Zero his money.

"Thank you." He said nothing else. Maddox nodded and climbed down and spotted Salvador talking to Axton.

"Hey Salvador." Maddox called.

"Sí?" Sal responded in Spanish. Maddox tossed him his ammo.

Sal looked at Maddox confused. "That's the loot." Maddox clarified.

"Oh ok."

Maddox started walking back up towards the ledge where Gaige was still sitting. "You doing ok?" Maddox asked half knowing the answer.

"...I... I think I'm getting there. Did they need help down there?"

"Not much, we're waiting on Hammerlock to find a shield. Other than that they had me pass around battle loot. You have a Med Hypo." He said handing her the pinkish vile.

"Thanks. Have you found a way to keep yourself charged?"

"I thought about using some of the town's power. But it doesn't have enough to make a big difference."

"Darn. I hope we find something. Suck to have you shut down like that again. Especially since you may never wake up."

"Yea…"

"It's weird you're not a robot. Yet, you run on power like a robot would."

"No kidding. The most annoying drawback of being this freak of nature. Well, now that I think about it, when I encounter a extremely emotional situation. Not only do I get stronger but I wind up using less energy."

"Like an adrenaline rush."

"Exactly. Just I've only been able to get it with anger. I've done that more than once. No 'heat of battle' adrenaline. You have to piss me off somehow. Make me snap, it doesn't get pretty when I do that's for sure."

"Can I get a picture?" Gaige asked interested.

"The enemies are disintegrated completely. Not the usual hole in the torso or missing limb. No trace that they existed. Except maybe an area behind them that's melted through or blackened."

"Your power is pretty cool. Definitely be in handy when facing Vault Monsters."

"Actually… when we get to sanctuary I was going to look for the person who is like me. I probably won't be hunting Vaults." Maddox admitted.

"Oh. I see." Gaige said mildly disappointed.

"Don't worry. I'll probably swing by Sanctuary a few times along the way." Maddox reassured her. Gaige simply nodded. "Looks like Maya is calling us." Maddox saw the Siren waving at them.

Maddox got up and Gaige walked down next to him. Once they reached the rest, Maddox saw Hammerlock standing near a bounty board and a fast travel station. Maddox nudged Gaige causing her to notice Hammerlock's cybernetic arm, leg, and eye. Gaige instantly smiled, and ran up to meet him. Maddox chuckled slightly as they began to talk about cybernetics and how they lost their limbs, or eye, however you lose an eye Maddox would never know. Then again he couldn't lose anything as it would just regenerate back on to him.

"Axton, did he finally get the shield?" Maya asked him.

"Yes, he said to vote for who would actually get it. I say I get it."

"I'm fine with that." Maya said.

"No senior I want it."

"The short one should get it/ always in the front/ only makes sense." Zero voted Sal.

"SMALL GIRL!" Krieg yelled. This got Gaige's attention.

"Huh?" Gaige looked confused.

"Who do you think should get the shield?" Axton asked.

"I'll take it." Gaige said.

"Looks like you're the tie breaker Maddox." Maya said.

"I hate being the tie breaker." Maddox said under his breath.

If Axton got the shield who is a mid range fighter would make it pretty much useless.

If Sal got it, since he is in the front he can take a lot more of the fire.

However, Gaige is young. The shield would save her life if a stray bullet found its way to her.

"I guess give it to Sal." Maddox said.

"Alright." Axton said as he gave Sal the shield.

"Oh hey before you go. Could you please kill all the Bullymong that invaded parts of the town. There are some by the graveyard and others are down under the bridge over there. Could you please clear them out?"

"I don't see why we can't." Maddox said.

"Ok, me, Zero, and Maya will clear the graveyard. The rest of you can take out those below the bridge." Axton said.

The two groups split. Maddox and Gaige, stayed above the ravine while the two tanks would provoke the Mongs. Maddox formed his Biggun while Gaige took out her Longrider. Sal aimed his Negotiator at the baby mong and fired a couple bursts. The mong was killed, however this caused the rest of the Mongs to crawl out of there holes. While Sal began shooting them with his pistol. Krieg would unload a volley at a group of Mongs. Maddox held his hand up, putting three fingers, then two, then one, then gripped it in a firm fist. Maddox and Gaige both got up and jumped down onto a mong. While Maddox began to unload the Tediore weapon at the mong below him, Gaige fired ger shotgun at the mong that jumped to take their heads off.

Maddox jumped off the dead mong and began firing it at a much bigger one. His gun clicked empty. He looked for a mag eject but couldn't find one. "Hey Gaige?"

"Yes?" She answered firing the last of her current load at a monglet.

"How do you reload?"

Gaige looked at him with wide eyes. "Eject the mag then put in a new one." She deadpanned.

"Woah, why is my gun beeping?"

"Beeping?... beeping! Maddox throw the gun."

"Why, I just want to reload it?"

"Just throw it."

"But it's a good gun why would I-"

Gaige Ripped the gun from his hand and threw it at a monglet. The gun exploded and killed the Mong. Then it reappeared in Gaige's hand. She handed the gun to him scolding him.

"Oh… that's how you reload. Not gonna lie, I never would have thought of that." Maddox said scratching his head.

"I swear you lived under a rock." Gaige said slightly frustrated.

"That was the last mong. Let's see if our amigos need help." Sal suggested.

They all followed Sal and saw that the other were already done clearing out their section. Suddenly, Gaige burst out laughing, she started rolling on the ground and started snorting.

"What's so funny?" Maddox asked.

"Y-you-Your face was priceless when" snort* "when I" she heaved. "when I ripped the gun out of your hand and threw it." snort* "then it exploded and you-your fac-face was the funniest thing I've ever seen."

Maddox turned red with embarrassment. "I didn't know how to reload it. How was I supposed to know I had to throw it."

"I-I" she held up her finger so she could catch her breath. "I figured you already did. But I'm glad you didn't. Because your face was priceless. It was all like." She widened her eyes and dropped her jaw as far as she could. She burst into a fit of laughter again.

"I'm never going to live this down am I?"

She shook her head. When she finally calmed down. She got up and dusted herself off. "Thanks, I needed that."

"I hate you." Maddox said playfully.

"Liar." She said back.

"Gaige. Take this." Axton said giving her a Rifle.

"Oh, uh thanks." Gaige said not sure why she was getting it. Axton didn't notice the uncertainty in her voice.

"We're about to do a couple more things for Hammerlock. He wants us to get some Bullymong hair and to go buy a shield." Axton said.

"Alright I think we're ready so, round everyone up and we'll meet by the lever." Maddox responded. Axton nodded and walked off. Maddox and Gaige made their way to where the lever was that raised the wall. Pretty soon the rest showed up.

Maddox flipped the lever and the wall below them raised. They all got down and stopped on the ramp that led down to a bandit outpost.

"Hey, Maddox I'll let you take control of this mission." Axton told him.

"Oh! Uh ok… I guess." Maddox said. It had been a long time since he led a team. "Where is this elevator at?"

"Over there." Maya pointed to a larger outpost just across the frozen lake.

"Ok. Zero you stay here. Take out enemies from afar, but wait for a shot. Krieg sneak around and wait until you hear a gunshot. Axton, Maya, and Sal. There won't be a whole lot of them. So hang back unless we start getting overwhelmed. Gaige." Maddox leaned down and quietly spoke to her. "We're about to kill more people. Do you want to take part in this?"

Gaige hesitated, then finally nodded. Figuring that she would need to on this planet whether she liked it or not.

"Ok, there's a shotgun midget. Silently kill him, choke him out. Break his neck. Don't shoot unless you need to. I'll get the Marauder."

Everyone nodded and started getting into position. Krieg gave him a thumbs up when he was ready. Maddox was surprised he was acting so quietly and somewhat sane. Maddox put his hand up, similar to earlier. Three. Two. One. Now. Maddox and Gaige climbed up and started working on their target. Maddox quickly snapped the Marauder's neck. Gaige seemed to struggle a bit but finally punched the midget with her cybernetic arm.

Maddox signaled to the stairs. They both went up. Maddox held his pistol ready while Gaige held her new AR. They both checked around the corners finding no one. Maddox found the lever to the elevator and bent down to switch it while Gaige watched his back. Maddox flipped the lever and cringed when it made a noise and didn't work.

A crazed marauder came out the door holding his AR at the ready. Maddox quickly dove into Gaige as the Marauder fired at them. The bullets slammed into his arm. Maddox aimed his pistol and killed the Marauder.

Maddox watched Krieg run and punched a much smaller psycho than he was and killed it.

Maddox got off of Gaige and looked at his arm. Seeing the bullet holes and contemplated in regenerating it at the cost of more power. "Are you ok?" Gaige asked him seeing his arm slightly torn up.

Maddox stood up shaking his arm seeing its limits. "Yea, I'll be fine." He gave her a thumbs up and quickly grabbed his arm with a pained look on his face. "So I can shake you like crazy but a thumbs up. Nooo that's crossing the line." He huffed at his arm.

"Why isn't it regenerating?"

"I'm trying to keep my power level maintained. Don't want to use it unless I absolutely need to."

"I'm sorry I should have payed more attention."

"Eh. It happens. I'll be fine." Everyone came over. "So we have a minor setback. The elevator isn't working."

"Let me contact Hammerlock." Sal said as he stepped aside and listened to his ECHO. "Ok, looks like we need a new adapter. He said there should be one in that bandit stronghold over there." Sal pointed at the stronghold that was set up near a giant wall of ice.

"Ok, I don't want to try to do this with a plan. Let's just storm it. Zero start it off." Maddox said. Gladly Zero aimed his sniper and took out a psycho. Everyone else ran up and started shooting at the bandits. Most of the bandits were killed instantly. They made it to the middle of the strong hold, there was an electric barrier and Gaige shot the electricity box. More bandits came pouring out of the buildings.

However, while Gaige was loading the last burst from her shotgun a suicide psycho snuck behind her. She turned around but before she could react it had detonated.

She opened her eyes finding herself glowing a light red hue. She looked over at Maddox who had an overstretched arm while his eyes were glowing red. The red began to flicker out and dimmed to nothing. Maddox collapsed.

"Maya!" Gaige said getting her attention.

Maya immediately saw what was wrong. "Get him to safety." She commanded.

Gaige tried to pick up him up and found he was surprising light. Even for his size he felt like he was barley heavier than her shotgun. She carried him back to the town and set him down. "Hammerlock, help!" Gaige called him.

Hammerlock rushed over. "Oh dear, what ever happened."

"He-I-" Gaige stumbled out.

"Tell me later, let me see what he needs." Hammerlock cut her off. He picked him and took him inside his igloo and Gaige followed inside. Hammerlock cleared off a table and set Maddox on it. "Was he shot?"

"No. He-" she hesitated to say anything. Was this something she could tell others. This could save his life. But what if he got mad when he found out she told Hammerlock. She decided she'd rather him be mad at her than dead. "He sorta ran out of power."

"Is he a robot, or cyborg?" Hammerlock asked looking at him slightly confused.

"No, he's a different kind of species entirely. As far as he knows there is only one other of his kind out there. He runs on some sort of power or something I don't know. If he uses too much or runs out he passes out and is lucky if he wakes up again."

Hammerlock paused for a few moments. Thinking of a way to help this species he never knew existed. "I have an idea bring him outside."

 **So what is Hammerlock's idea? Will it work? Will it make everything worse? Who knows? (Besides me of course.)**

 **Inventory Update:**

 **Axton**

 **Anaconda- Dahl Pistol**

 **Maya**

 **Repeater- Dahl Pistol**

 **Salvador**

 **Negotiator- Dahl Pistol**

 **Standard Shielf- Tediore**

 **Zero**

 **Callipeen- Jakobs Sniper Rifle**

 **Gaige**

 **Rifle- Vladof AR**

 **Longrider- Jakobs Shotgun**

 **Krieg**

 **Incendairy Launcher- Bandit Launcher**

 **Maddox**

 **Biggun- Tediore Pistol**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hey, sorry that I haven't posted. I was at a staff retreat for the camp I staff at during the summer. But the good news is this chapter and the next one are both done and I will upload the next one right after this one. There is a part in this chapter that will seem like it contradicts what happen to Maddox. However, it is not and will be explained later, but if you dig deep enough right now you might see why it's not a contradiction. Incendiary = fire. Electronic = electric. Acidic = corrosive. Weakened = slag.**

Chapter 4: Midge Mong

3 years before Maddox comes to Pandora…

"There are thousands of people in this room. We will assign everyone to a specific trainer, the class size will not be evenly spread out. I was lucky enough to hand that job to someone else. X-5 will be doing that." A man in his early sixties came forward. X-1 exited the stage.

"Cortana Johnson, come forward." Cortana had brown hair with bright blue eyes. "X-555, X-2054," X-5 continued to name off numbers. "...X-624…" Maddox heard his number and walked up where the other numbers were walking. A man with a gun came and checked their numbers he came to Maddox.

"Where's your number?" he asked him. X-5 stopped naming off numbers and turned towards Maddox.

"It's right here," Maddox lifted up his circular device that he held in his hand. However, while doing this a glowing red blade ejected from his wrist into the soldier's skull. He had forgotten he was not able to control his power yet.

Maddox immediately bent over as he looked at the cauterized wound. Unable to come to terms he had just killed someone. He sat there for what seemed not only hating himself but saw himself as a monster... a freak.

Maddox was tackled to the ground and someone pulled up an AR and let the bullets rain out on his back. However, each bullet bounced off harmlessly. Finding that bullets would not kill him they took his Ability Blocker and put it back on him. Maddox immediately felt the effects.

"Never mind, X-624, is going with Ivan Miller." X-5 commanded. The soldiers picked up Maddox and took him behind a red curtain. Maddox looked up and saw a man with red hair and brown eyes.

"Hey, Ivan we got a rebel here, we'll let you deal with this." The soldier explained holding Maddox.

"What'd he do?" Ivan asked expecting a direct answer.

"Took off his AB and killed a soldier when we questioned him about it."

"Leave him here." Maddox was dropped to the floor, he struggled to get up, but the power of the AB was too strong. Ivan walked over and took the AB off. Maddox regained his strength and began to get up. However, Ivan put his foot on Maddox. "Don't get up."

Maddox laid there helpless knowing he had no reason to get up, ashamed by his own action even though it was an accident and that it was impossible to try anything stupid with this...this Ivan Miller.

Present…

"Lean him up against the gate!" Hammerlock commanded Gaige.

Gaige set the limp body of Maddox down against the gate that was closed earlier while bandits were raiding the town. "Alright stand back. I don't know how this is going to go."

Gaige stood back uncertain and slightly terrified with what Hammerlock was going to do. Hammerlock went inside and flipped a switch. Gaige heard the gate start to produce power, the gate began to electrocute Maddox, then his eyes started to glow red.

The gate eventually ran out of power. Maddox still remained unmoving, as his eyes returned to their normal hazel color. Hammerlock and Gaige looked at the fallen hero, waiting, just hoping something would happen, a sign that he might still be alive. However, he remained still for several minutes. Eventually, the others had made it back. Axton was carrying a lump of Bullymong fur and it looked like Maya had a shield now.

They gave the hair to Clap Trap who gave them a shotgun. "How's he doing?" Sal asked Gaige.

She didn't answer. She continued to stare at Maddox. "Not good huh." He tried to pry.

Axton ran around the town, picking up ECHO logs that he found and was listening to them. He then ran over to Hammerlock who gave him a pistol.

Axton looked over at Gaige. From the look of his face she guessed he had just gotten another mission.

She overheard him talking to Maya. "Think she should come along?"

"It might keep her mind off of things." She responded.

"I'll let her know."

"No." Maya stopped him. "Let me talk to her. We might need to have a woman to woman conversation."

"She's just a kid."

"Well, we're on Pandora. She'll need to grow up quick." Maya walked over to the 'her' they referred to.

"Hey. You alright?" she asked softly.

"I just… feel so guilty." Gaige admitted. "If I was just paying attention he wouldn't have gotten shot and wouldn't have passed out from so much over use of his power." She had to word this carefully. Not wanting to say he ran on energy like some kind of robot. "Maybe I'm not a fit for this world. Maybe I should have taken whatever punishment on Eden 5 so I wouldn't get more people killed or hurt."

"Don't say that. We're all glad you're here and that you came."

"Can you speak for him? All I've done is freak out when I killed someone, get him shot, and probably even got him killed. What reason would he have to be happy I'm here?"

"I… look it doesn't matter what 1 person thinks. If he doesn't like you, you've got 5 others who do. So it doesn't matter. Now how about we go on a mission? We are going to hunt ourselves a unique Bullymong."

"Mmk." Gaige said as she stood up. Stealing one last glance at Maddox.

"Axton, want to pass out the pistol, shotgun and the stuff in the porta potty?" Maya asked.

Axton threw the shotgun to Krieg. "Maya is this pistol better?" Axton threw her the pistol.

"Yes. Much better." She kept it.

Axton gave Sal a Electronic launcher. "That was it. So now we're all going to got and kill a Bullymong, but this bullymong has a midget riding him. So we'll need to take out both." Everyone started heading back out to the bandit fort earlier. Gaige looked at the dead bandits everywhere. She saw a black scorch mark on the ground where the bandit nearly blew her up. Gaige stared at the mark for a few seconds 'till she felt Maya's hand on her shoulder.

They kept walking through a a divide in the ice wall. Bullymong corpses that had no hair laid here. The small divide led to a cave that went all the way through to the other side. They went through the cave and were met by more bullymongs, but they were easily wiped out. Then they got to a very large bandit base. Where a moving platform connected to the base. They all moved onto the platform and pulled a lever for it to go.

There was now just a drawbridge however Zero began to snipe the bandits near the bridge that hadn't noticed them. They raised the drawbridge and began to cross the deadly freezing river below them. Gaige proceeded forward with her shotgun. Axton was close behind her with his pistol. Axton fired a shot at an unsuspecting psycho midget and hit its arm. All other bandits heard this and began to fire at the 6 of them. Gaige and Axton ducked behind cover and as did everyone else. Gaige switched to her AR and peaked around the corner. She aimed her Rifle and killed the psycho midget Axton hit earlier.

Axton, Maya, and Sal, all peaked over their covers and fired at Marauders. They hadn't killed any, but most were injured. A shotgun midget came out of the doorway next to Gaige who slammed its head into the ground killing it. Gaige took in a deep breath knowing that right now was not the time to grieve. Zero fired off a round and killed a crazed marauder.

Krieg charged forward and used his Torgue shotgun to blast a psycho to pieces. Gaige decided to cover him with her Longrider and killed a marauder the was trying to melee him. Krieg ran off as a psycho ran at Gaige. Gaige tried to shoot him but missed.

"YOU'RE GOING TO BE MY NEW MEAT BICYCLE!" The psycho screamed. The psycho knocked Gaige over and raised his buzz axe over his head and began to cut down at her. Gaige raised her left arm to try and catch it. However, she was surprised when her robot Death Trap digistructed. DT sliced at the psycho and started floating around for the next hostile. Everyone else had seen this, Axton was finally able to get his turret out and it started shooting at the bandits. Maya had trapped a bandit in purple energy and killed it. Sal pulled out both his launcher and pistol, dual wielding and killed more bandits. Zero started doing a bunch of sword tricks. Killing nobody. Krieg was able to turn on the axe as the blade started rotating he threw it around and sliced bandits up with it. Zero suddenly appeared from thin air with his sword through a Marauder.

Gaige saw a porta potty and opened. She found 4 shields inside. "Krieg." she said as she tossed him a shield. A bandit hit Krieg and burst into flames. She threw a shield to Axton. Gaige saved a shield for Maddox. She kept the last one for herself.

"Ok, looks like there's lots of ships over there. Midge Mong maybe over there. But he also could be a couple levels above us. So we'll need to split up, we need to get this done. Gaige, me, and Maya. We'll head upstairs, the rest of you head towards the boatline." Axton commanded. Sal, Zero, and Krieg all left to do their part. Everyone else headed up the first flight of stairs where they were met with more bandits.

Gaige used her Rifle and killed a psycho who started to tumble down the stairs into the water. DT showed up and shot his blue eye laser at a marauder killing him. They came up to the third level, fighting off more bandits.

DT destructed and they had to fight without the help of the death robot. Luckily the last few enemies were easy to mop up. "There are more stairs over here." Maya announced.

The three went up the stairs and the double doors flew open. Sure enough it was a Bullymong with a midget riding on top of it. The mong lashed at them while the midget began shooting as well. The mong then jumped over them. Gaige fired her Rifle but the bullets bounced off the armor. "Someone get behind it, it has armor." Maya and Axton managed to get around to the side and began unloading their mags into it with burst fire. The mong shrugged off the bullets as the midget turned to shoot at Axton.

Axton failed to get out of the way as the bullets slammed into his left shoulder hitting the shield protecting him as the shield gave out. Gaige adjusted her aim and fired her AR at the midget riding on top of it. The midget wasn't killed but mortally wounded and was hunched over making inaccurate shots at the three. Axton fired his Dahl pistol at the midget with his burst fire and killed it.

The mong was sent into a fit of range and swiped at Gaige. Her shield gave out and a booster pack was produced by the shield. Maya tossed her the shield and her shield recharged just before the mong could swipe again. This time Gaige managed to dodge the swipe she quickly changed to her shotgun and fired a burst. The mong staggered a bit and jumped away to a nearby building. Axton's shield recharged and he shot the mong. His amplified shot caused the mong to stumble and fall. Maya finished the mong off with her pistol.

The mong had dropped an Electronic Vexation. Gaige went over to pick it up. She decided to keep it instead of the shotgun she carried. She saved the shotgun for Salvador. Gaige walked up the stairs and two awesome marauders came out of the doorway in the back of the room the Midge Mong came from. The two immediately noticed her and started shooting at her. Gaige took cover behind the doorway and aimed her new smg at one of them and fired a few bolts and ducked back behind as they fired at her again.

Gaige decided to summon DT and he charged into the room and was attacking one of them. Gaige switched to her AR and began to fire at the other. The one Gaige shot at was caught by surprise and quickly took a lot of the hits from the Rifle.

The other marauder was struggling to fight the robot. Gaige fired more shots at her marauder and has finally managed to kill it emptying her mag. She switched to her smg and fired at the other marauder and was able to kill it. She noticed a chest and decided to open it. She found 4 more shields. She grabbed them and saw that Maya had opened a chest finding 1 launcher. They all also grabbed various loot they found and decided to sort it out once they were back in town.

They met up with the other half of the team and Gaige gave Sal the shotgun. They all traveled back to the town. "Alright let's distribute. Sal found a launcher in the chest on one of the boats. We also got this Negotiator pistol Sal gave up to keep his shotgun."

"Ok." Maya said. "Money for Axton, me, and Sal. Med Hypo for Zero. Money for Krieg. Med Hypo for Gaige, and Maddox. Incendiary Aegis for Axton. Ammo for me. Med Hypo for Sal. Money for Zero, Krieg. Gaige another Med Hypo. Money for Maddox."

Maya took a deep breath. "Ok the Negotiator, goes to me. Boom goes to Maddox. Weakened Topneea for Axton"

"I'm putting this Anaconda in the pile." Axtons said.

"Anaconda goes to Zero, as does this Nova Shield. Maddox can get this other Nova Shield. Gaige is it better than his Turtle?"

"No."

"Ok, he can decide what to do with it when he wakes up. Axton check this Adaptive Shield."

"Crap."

"Sal check this Turtle Shield."

"I like it."

"Ok that's it. We will start moving out tomorrow."

Everyone nodded and Gaige looked over at Maddox. He still hadn't moved.

 **Ok hope you enjoyed the chapter. Next chapter is going to reveal quite a bit about Maddox as it is entirley about him. One more thing, when a character gets something and I don't say what they do with it (i.e When Gaige gave the shotgun to Sal) assume the character sold it.**

 **Inventory Update:**

 **Axton**

 **Weakened Topneea- Vladof Launcher**

 **Incendiary Aegis- Maliwan Pistol**

 **Amped Shield- Hyperion**

 **Maya**

 **Troublemaker- Valdof Pistol**

 **Negotiator- Dahl Pistol**

 **Standard Shield- Tediore**

 **Salavador**

 **Longrider- Jakob's Shotgun**

 **Electronic Prowler- Maliwan Launcher**

 **Turtle Shield- Pangolin**

 **Zero**

 **Callipeen- Jakob's Sniper**

 **Anaconda- Dahl Pistol**

 **Nova Shield- Torgue**

 **Gaige**

 **Rifle- Vladof AR**

 **Electronic Vexation- Maliwan SMG**

 **Booster Shield- Dahl**

 **Krieg**

 **Pounder- Torgue Shotgun**

 **Incendiary Launcher- Bandit Launcher**

 **Incendiary Spike Shield- Maliwan**

 **Maddox**

 **Boom- Torgue Launcher**

 **Biggun- Tediore Pistol**

 **Turtle Shield- Pangolin**


	5. Chapter 5

**Told you it'd ne pretty quick after Chap. 4. This chapter is going to reveal quite a bit about Maddox. Now this chapter is probably going to be annoying to read as there is a different languauge in this. But do not worry because I translated it. The english will be in parenthesis while what they're are actually saying is in the actual quotes.**

Chapter 5: Internal Battles

Everyone walked out of where they stayed for the night. Hammerlock decided he'd keep Maddox in his house for the night. Hammerlock rushed outside. "He's gone and so are his stuff!"

The 6 of them frantically looked around for a sign of their friend. They looked around for a good hour. "I guess he just up and left... Still. We need to get going." Axton said.

Gaige couldn't believe it. He had actually left. No note of goodbye, no personal goodbye. Just gone. Just like that. Then Gaige saw footprints. They were too small to be any of the current guys, and too big for her and Maya. Gaige decided to follow them.

Sure enough, at the end of the trail was Maddox, sitting there not doing anything. He hadn't heard her approach. Almost like he was meditating. Suddenly, he stood up and threw an ice chunk against the ice wall. The impact caused a small crack on the wall. "You know we almost left without you." Gaige told him, he seemed to be a little startled. "We all thought you up and left."

"Oh, sorry. Should've told you." He hadn't looked at her yet.

"What was that about anyway? Why did you go all the way out here?"

"I needed to think. Clear out my head. I'm fine though."

"So other than having problems inside your head are you ok? Do you feel like you're running out of energy?"

"Yea, I have about half of the energy. Should last me a couple weeks."

"I'm glad you're ok." Gaige hugged him from behind. "Are you mad at me?"

"No. Just glad I can wake up again."

"Come on." She let go of him. "Let's head back we need to get going." Gaige suggested. Maddox followed her.

While Maddox was unconscious…

"Kcab niaga ydaerla?" (Back again already?) A humanoid figure glowing completely red said to the hazel eyed 18 year old in front of him. The surrounding area was a black void of nothing.

"Sey." (Yes.) Maddox replied.

"Uoy erew tsuj ereh yadretsey. Uoy era revo gnisu ruoy srewop." (You were just here yesterday. You are over using your powers.) The entity said. "Yhw dluohs I evig uoy rehtona ecnahc" (Why should I give you another chance?)

"Mi ton gnittel uoy ekat lortnoc. Yllaicepse retfa tahw uoy did tsal emit." (I'm not letting you take control. Especially after what you did last time)

"Oot dab. Skool ekil siht emit lluoy deen ot thgif rof ti." (Too bad. Looks like this time you'll need to fight for it.)

"Ko, ta tsael lli eid gniyrt ot pots uoy." (Ok, at least I'll die trying to stop you.)

The entity floated forward with extreme speed. Maddox tried to time his punch in order to hit its head. However his hand ran right through him. While the entity has slammed him onto the ground. "Loof. Uoy tonnac niw." (Fool. You cannot win.) The entity straddled him and began to punch him wherever he couldn't guard. The entity deployed dual blades and tried to stab Maddox as he barely dodged out of the way.

Maddox decided to try and punch it again. Finding his hand went through however He took this opportunity of its phase to escape from its hold on him. The entity floated and began firing bolts of plasma at him. Maddox had to dodge these knowing one hit from these would cause him to lose. The entity gave up trying to shoot him and decided to fight him face to face. The entity deployed dual blades and began to slash at Maddox who narrowly dodged the incoming blows. He sliced above and Maddox ducked under it and sweeped the legs of the entity. Surprised that he actually tripped him.

Maddox figured out it could switch on and off his phasing ability. So that means he must attack while the entity attacks. Otherwise his attacks are wasted. The entity tackled Maddox again and Maddox managed to push it off as it was trying to throw a punch at him. The entity disappeared.

Axton, Maya, Sal, Zero, Krieg, and Gaige were far off into the distance. Maddox had won and was glad to see them. He ran forward finding himself in Liar's Berg.

They all pointed their weapons at Maddox. "Woah woah, guys guys. What's going on?"

"How can we trust you Maddox? You didn't tell us." They all said in unison.

"This is a trick, you aren't real."

"You lied to us." They all began to shoot at Maddox. Maddox ran a few bullets were able to hit his arms and his legs. But Maddox had to ignore the pain he felt. So he kept running. He saw they had to reload. So Maddox tackled Faxton as he deployed his turret. The turret began to fire accurate shots at Maddox. Maddox had no choice but to use Faxton as a meat shield. The turret stopped firing and the other 5 fakes didn't want to hurt Faxton.

Faxton remained unmoving. His own turret had killed him as it began to destruct. The remaining 5 started to shoot at him again. Maddox grabbed Faxton's gun and ran behind a incomplete ice brick wall. They stopped firing and he peeked over the cover. Faya's tattoos began to glow blue and Maddox was caught in a purple ball of energy. Maddox tried to get out but was stuck. His gun however, happened to be aimed right at Faya. Maddox used all of his dying strength to move his finger just to pull the trigger. The gun fired and Faya took it all and was killed. Maddox was released from the energy ball and he fell to the ground back in his cover.

Foulvador pulled out two guns and completely obliterated his cover. Maddox ran for another cover. Taking even more bullets. Maddox was getting tired and getting slower with each bullet that entered his leg. Finally behind a more fortified wall, Maddox sat against it. Trying to figure out his options, Maddox looked at his gun seeing that he had failed to grab extra ammo off of Faxton and he had one bullet left in the clip. Maddox took out the mag, leaving one bullet in the chamber. Foul came around the wall and began shooting him again. Maddox charged and tripped the short man. Maddox sat on top of him and snapped his neck.

Foro came around the wall with his sword. Then started doing weird sword tricks. Maddox ran forward to tackle him but found it was a hologram. The real Foro was invisible somewhere. Maddox stood up and looked around. "Come on you fought Ivan you can do this." He motivated himself. Maddox closed his eyes and started listening. A single bird chirp. The sound of an iceberg falling apart. The near silent crunch of snow behind him. Maddox opened his eyes and ducked he grabbed his rifle and fired behind him. Foro uncloaked and fell over. A hole in his mask. Maddox dropped the now empty rifle.

Frieg suddenly burst through the wall and threw the buzz axe at Maddox. Maddox ducked as the buzz axe went over his head. Frieg slammed into Maddox knocking him on the floor. "I'M GOING TO PUT YOUR HEAD ON MY MERRY GO ROUND." Frieg grabbed the buzz axe and lifted it over his head. Maddox caught the buzz axe but knew the psycho's enhanced strength would overpower him quickly. Maddox could feel the spinning blade near his neck and decided to try and kick him in the groin. Maddox was surprised that it worked, Frieg held himself and dropped the buzz axe. Maddox grabbed the buzz axe and shoved it in his throat. Frieg fell over dead.

Maddox breathed heavily, "Just one more fake." He said to himself. He tried to limp over to the hole in the wall. But his leg gave out and he began to fall, however something caught him. Maddox looked to see what caught him. "Gaige?!" a smile on his face glad she found someway into his head. However, her cybernetic arm cocked back and punched his stomach. Maddox coughed up blood, something he hadn't seen from himself for 3 years. "Nope, you're just Faige." Suddenly, DT appeared in front of him. Maddox rolled out of the way just before the ion claws could reach him. Maddox hurriedly got up and tried to run. Faige grabbed his legs causing him to trip. Maddox grunted in pain, he turned around and used his badly bruised leg and kicked her against the wall. Maddox scrambled to get up as DT began to fire his eye beam. Maddox grabbed a shiny piece of metal and reflected the laser back at him. DT short circuited and lost control and slammed into Faige sending her back into the wall harder than Maddox had when he kicked her. Maddox knew she wasn't dead as DT was still laying on the ground. Maddox leaned against the wall to get over to her and finish her off.

"All we wanted to do-" she coughed up blood. "-was help you. You betrayed us all. I-I don't even know you." Gaige-no no no. Faige. Faige said tears streaming down her face, as she let out her final breath. Maddox collapsed. He won, soon he would be in the real world.

Suddenly, everything turned black and a void again as the entity came on top of Maddox strangling and blocking his airway. Maddox tried to push it off, however his hands only went through it. Only its hands were physical. Maddox tried to release its hands however was getting weak due to the lack of his oxygen. Maddox saw his vision blackening. Maddox frantically threw his arms around its body. Then felt something hard, he grabbed it and brought it to his fading vision. Seeing it was a red crystal. Maddox slammed the crystal against the ground, shattering it. The entity disappeared, as Maddox gasped for air. Slowly finding himself now laying on a desk in some sort of house.

Maddox got up finding all his wounds were healed. But unsure if it was real. He found a pile of gear with a note saying it was his. Maddox took the gear and walked outside, it was dark out. Maddox started walking in a random direction. Eventually finding a dead end. Maddox sat down in front of the ice wall.

"Uoy kniht evuoy now?" (You think you've won?) The entity appeared again.

"Tnod wonk. Loof em ecno. Emahs no em. Eciwt, emahs no uoy. Tub ti tnow neppah niaga." (Don't know. Fool me once. Shame on me. Twice, shame on you. But it won't happen again.)

"Llew uoy era ekawa won. Tnod eveileb em? Esu ruoy rewop dna tuc na eci knuhc tuo." (Well you are awake now. Don't believe me? Use your power and cut an ice chunk out.)

Hesitantly, Maddox caused a piece of ice to be surrounded with red and took out the chunk. "Ees?" (See?) The entity spoke.

Maddox didn't respond. But he knew he was awake now. The entity was the reason he had powers. While yes the entity was inherently evil. Maddox was its prison cell. In return of holding a powerful unkillable being. He could wield its power as long as it was still in its cell. Maddox also considered that if the other was like him, that if the evil being inside him or her had escaped and took over the body. He'd need to deal with it.

Maddox and the entity continued to talk till morning. The entity saw something behind Maddox. Maddox noticed this but didn't care to pay attention. "Mi gniog ot llik lla fo ruoy sdneirf." (I'm going to kill all of your friends.) The entity got a very devious smile. "Eht lrig lliw eb eht tsom elbayojne." (The girl will be the most enjoyable.)

In a fit of anger Maddox stood up and threw ice chunk from earlier at the wall and caused the wall to crack.

"You know we almost left without you." Maddox heard Gaige behind him. That's why the entity was smiling. Gaige was behind him. "We all thought you up and left."

"Oh, sorry. Should've told you."

"What was that about anyway? Why did you go all the way out here?"

"I needed to think. Clear out my head. I'm fine though."

"So other than having problems inside your head are you ok? Do you feel like you're running out of energy?"

Maddox wanted to tell her to go away. That he was dangerous. "I have about half of the energy. I'll be good for a couple weeks."

Gaige hugged him from behind. "I'm glad you're ok. Are you mad at me?"

"No. Just glad I can wake up again." Maddox said truthfully. He was very happy to be back.

 **So there you have it, Chapter 5 and a little insight to what Maddox really is. Since nothing really happened in the outside world. There will not be an Inventory Update like there is at the end of other chapters. Till next time.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey again, sorry I took a while to post. I had to switch to a new phone and that didn't switch right so it was just a big mess. Anyways Steele is not in this, just a title I decided to use. So yea, that is it.**

* * *

Chapter 6: Flynt and Steele

Maddox and Gaige met up with the rest under the raised wall. "There you are Gaige, where were you?" Maya asked worried. Gaige looked at Maddox as an answer and Maya gave him the death glare.

Maddox shrunk slightly but not enough to notice. "We need to move, glad you could make it Maddox." Axton said. The 7 survivors made it to a bandit camp and they began to shoot as Clap Trap cowardly hid behind a small fence.

Once the shooting stopped Clap Trap came out of his cover and looked around. "Minion, what have you done? These were human beings… with lives and families… ah totally kidding screw those guys." Maddox glanced at Gaige as her face fell a little bit. Maddox 'accidentally' kicked Clap Trap to pick up some ammo.

They continued to move on to the bigger camp. They all opened fire and wiped out the bandits with ease. Axton spotted a chest and climbed up to it and opened it. "Why do we keep finding launchers?"

"What is it?" Maya asked.

"Literally just a Launcher. Here you go Maya." Axton tossed her the Launcher. Maya kept her Negotiator instead of the other pistol she had. They made it to and elevator and rode it down.

"It's Boom Bewm. AHHHH". Clap Trap screamed.

"Light the fuses crackheads." Boom said getting on top a giant cannon. Bewm stayed on the ground and flew towards them with his jetpack.

"Crackheads?" Maddox asked. "What kind of insult is that?"

Maddox took out his Biggun and began shooting Bewm with it. Eventually running out as he threw the gun at him. Bewm shrugged it off and threw something at Maddox. Maddox looked at it and immediately knew what it was and threw it back at him. "Let's play hot potato." Maddox said.

Everyone, even the psycho's, stopped. "Hot Potato?" Bewm asked as the grenade landed at his feet. The grenade blew up and Bewm laid on the ground. He got up. Still no one made any movement.

"Seriously, tell me that you've at least heard of Hot Potato." Maddox said, everyone shook their heads. "Ok, now it's my turn to ask if you've been living under a rock."

Bewm took this chance and shot Maddox with his shotgun. Maddox took the full spread of the pellets and landed on his back. His shield stopped where the pellets went so that no damage was done. Maddox threw his Biggun one last time even though it had a full clip.

The gun exploded and killed Bewm and he dropped 3 grenades. Boom was still alive and on top of the cannon firing at Krieg. Maddox knew that he needed to conserve his energy so he had to get a little creative. Maddox jumped onto Krieg's back.

"Alright big guy. Throw me up there." Maddox told him.

"MEATBALL!" Krieg shouted throwing Maddox towards the cannon. Maddox caught onto one of the barrels and manage to pull himself where Boom was sitting. Maddox punched Boom off the cannon. The other 6 opened fire at him and he quickly was killed. He also dropped 3 grenades.

Everyone picked up grenades except for Maya. Who found that when the elevator was raised there was a door leading to a chest. She opened the chest and found another launcher. She knew the Electronic Spread was better and took it.

Maddox hopped on the cannon and blew out the gate Clap Trap refused to get away from yet kept warning them not to shoot the gate when he was close to it. Sure enough Clap Trap flew further into the bandit camp and more bandits came through. They were quickly taken care of by the cannon. Before they left Gaige found a porta potty and opened it. "Electronic Jericho for Maddox. Electronic Strike for Axton."

They began to push farther into the base and stumbled upon another chest. Maddox and Sal got new shields and the last one was crap.

They continued to push through finding gear that was crap compared to what they already had. They all snickered when Clap Trap complained about stairs and finally found a Incendiary Sniper. Which was only good for Maddox. After they killed bandits that seemed to endlessly come out of crates they found a Sniper for Zero.

After they pulled Clap Trap up to their level they quickly made it to where Captain Flynt was guarding Clap Trap's ship.

"Captain Flynt. Your Clap Trap unit has returned." Clap Trap shouted to him.

"Is he and idiot?" Sal asked.

Bandits came out of every nook and cranny and the 7 fired in all directions. Finally Flynt came down and ignited himself on fire. He seemed to take no damage and the floor around everyone else erupted with fire. Everyone tried to fire at him and everyone else. However, they were quickly overwhelmed. Gaige had enough and summoned DT. DT floated around and began killing bandits. They all then began to fire at Flynt again. He eventually succumbed to the flurry and died.

They followed Clap Trap as a door opened and found a chest. Which had nothing but crappy shields. They all boarded the boat as they awaited the long boat ride do Sanctuary. They all went under the deck as Clap Trap steered the ship toward Sanctuary.

"It's getting pretty late. We should get some sleep so we're ready for tomorrow." Axton said and everyone agreed. Everyone quickly fell asleep... everyone but Maddox.

Maddox was too afraid to fall asleep. Especially after the night before. Maddox listened to the outside, hearing the muffled sound of waves hitting the boat as it trudged along. Maddox stood up and climbed onto the deck of the small ship. He leaned against the bridge of the ship. Feeling the frigid glacier wind blow against him. He looked at the stary sky above him. Admiring all the beautiful stars above.

"Tiny dots of light, in an endless darkness hung. They shine forth through the night. And they speak without a tongue." Maddox quietly sung, careful not to wake those below him. "Jesus chose to put them there. Before the world began. And I know that my life too. Is included in his plan." He continued. "So I do not have to worry, though trials leave their scars. My living Lord is Jesus Christ, the creator of the stars. Maddox took a deep breath as he prepares the next verse. "Bigger than the sky, Is my savior's love for me. He came down here to die. After living perfectly." Maddox closed his eyes, as everything seemed warmer. "Now I live to serve him. What else could I do? And when I go through struggles. I remember he has faced them too." Maddox sighed. "So I do not have to worry. Though trials leave their scars. My living Lord is Jesus Christ, the creator of the stars." Maddox opened his eyes again. "My living Lord is Jesus Christ, the creator of the stars." Maddox sat in silence, silently missing his home. Even though it wasn't much better than Pandora, he had left for more than one reason. Finding the other of his kind was only one of them.

"That… that was beautiful." Maddox was a little startled and he turned to see Gaige standing behind him.

"Oh, sorry. Did I wake you?"

"Yea, but I'm glad you did. Otherwise I wouldn't have heard it." Gaige came over and sat down next to him. "Where did you hear that song anyways?"

"I uh, I heard from my planet when I was younger. It was a song that I first heard when I was camping at a summer camp. I remember it better because I began to staff there. Before-before I changed anyways."

"Oh. Did they push you out after you changed?"

"No, it's kind of a long story. I don't think they ever knew I changed. They probably just heard that I died." They sat in silence for a while. Gaige decided to hug him.

"You looked like you needed a hug." she excused herself.

"Well, you're not wrong." Maddox said as he hugged her back. She was shivering and he could feel that she was freezing. "Geez you're freezing."

"Sorry, but it's cold out here. I've been cold since we left Liar's Berg." She apologized.

Maddox slowly decided to raise his body heat. His eyes even began to dim red. Gaige felt the sudden warmth and looked up at Maddox. "You're using your power. Won't that get you fatigued?"

"Yes. But I don't think I can convince you go downstairs to stay warm. I'd rather waste a bit of power to keep you from freezing to death." Maddox replied. Gaige responded simply by smiling.

"Why aren't you downstairs with everyone else sleeping?"

"Couldn't sleep."

"May I ask why?"

"I'm afraid to fall asleep. Especially these last couple of days. Afraid that I won't wake up."

"You're scared of dying?"

"Yea, that's one way to put it. What about you? Why aren't you down there?"

"I heard some noise above me and came to check it out. Found you."

Maddox chucked a bit. "Now is that really the only reason?"

"No. I guess I just miss home a bit. I really miss my Dad." Maddox hugged her a little bit tighter from her response.

"Let me guess, you're his little girl?"

"Mhmm."

"I would give anything to see my dad again. We had a good relationship, until I became a freshmen in high school. I joined Cross Country. You know what that is?"

"Yes."

"I was also on the Drill Team-"

"Wait… you were on a dance team?" Gaige had to stiffle a laugh.

"No. It wasn't that kind of Drill team. It was jrotc extracurricular activity."

"Jrotc?"

"Junior Reserved Officer Training Corps. It's a military program. Now because I was on the Drill Team for that and on the Cross Country team. I had to miss days of practice on both sides to give one side a full day. Wednesday I did half and half. Dad told me I had to join one or the other. Told me I would never be good at something if I kept doing both. So he suggested I switched to full time Drill. I didn't agree with him, I decided to do both and we got into this massive arguement him saying I need to choose one. Then me arguing that I can do both. We never made up. Mainly because that same year, that's when I changed. I never saw him alive again. I was captured by this organization. They seemed trust worthy. But they only wanted to use me for what I became. So I killed every single person that was involved. Friends, even some I considered family. By the time I had escaped. My family was already killed. My child hood friend commited suicide thinking I was dead. I had nothing left. So I ran, and now I'm here, on Pandora, talking to you." Maddox said all of this while looking off into the distance. "Sorry… for going on like that. It's nice to have someone that listens you know?"

"I don't think you need to apologize. Your life was good and then turned crap for the last 3 years. Mine just started to turn crap a few days ago. But my crap is nothing compared to your's. After all, you literally had nothing left. I was simply given the death sentence. You were being used and found out everyone you knew was dead."

"I guess. But...enough about my crap. Tell me about your Dad. If you want to that-"

"He was not only my Dad, but he was my best friend. Mom was there too, but for girls, the Dad is always the one to stand out. He supported me in everything I did. He also was heart broken. Mainly because I had felt alone. The reason I felt alone was because every guy at my school that I had a crush on. Didn't really notice me. If they did, I was too much of a geek for them to care. So I just felt alone. I had no important guy in my life. But Dad, he was there for me. One day, he took me out to the park. He began to talk with me, asking why I was so down. I basically just told him what I just told you. Not noticing me, or I'm too much of a geek. I'll always remember what he told me. He said, 'You'll find someone. You won't know when, you won't even expect it. But you'll find someone. That person will protect you better than I ever could. If he can't, then you've got the wrong guy.' I'll always remember that statement, that was my encouragement up until my Junior year. Which is when the science fair incident happened. So now that hope he gave me, I don't think I'll find it here on Pandora, especially since almost everyone probably just wants to kill you."

"Yea, I guess that's true."

* * *

 **So what did you think? I don't think it was that good because it felt rushed. The song sung earlier is not my own song. I don't know who it was written by. Like Maddox I remember singing it growing up. Anyways see ya later.**

 **Inventory Update**

 **Axton**

 **Electronic Strike- Dahl Sniper**

 **Incendiary Aegis- Maliwan Pistol**

 **Amped Shield- Hyperion**

 **Sticky Lobbed Standard Grenade- Tediore**

 **Maya**

 **Electronic Spread- Tediore Launcher**

 **Negotiator- Dahl Pistol**

 **Standard Shield- Tediore**

 **Salvador**

 **Longrider- Jakob's Shotgun**

 **Electronic Prowler- Maliwan Launcher**

 **Nova Shield- Torgue**

 **Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**

 **Zero**

 **Sniper- Dahl Sniper**

 **Anaconda- Dahl Pistol**

 **Nova Shield- Torgue**

 **Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**

 **Gaige**

 **Rifle- Vladof AR**

 **Electronic Vexation- Maliwan SMG**

 **Booster Shield- Dahl**

 **Acidic Sticky Longbow Transfusion Grenade- Maliwan**

 **Krieg**

 **Pounder- Torgue Shotgun**

 **Incendiary Launcher- Bandit Launcher**

 **Incendiary Spike Shield- Maliwan**

 **Electronic Homing Bettie Grenade- Dahl**

 **Maddox**

 **Boom- Torgue Launcher**

 **Incendiary Sniper- Dahl Sniper**

 **Roid Shield- Bandit**

 **Incendiary Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys back again. I don't really have any announcements to make but here's another chapter.**

* * *

Chapter 7: The Talk

Gaige slowly opened her eyes. Seeing mainly ocean, with her right field of vision nothing but a leather like fabric. Noticing she was outside, she wondered how she wasn't cold. In fact she was completely warm. She was also upright leaning against something fairly soft. She propped herself up and found she was leaning on Maddox. She nodded to herself and leaned back on him.

Suddenly, she sprang up realizing that SHE was leaning ON MADDOX. She looked around quickly to see if anyone was watching. Her face tomato red. There was nothing, not even a bird. Maddox was leaning against the bridge, he was still sleeping, her jolt hadn't woken him. He was peaceful. She turned around seeing a very beautiful sunrise. The light flashes of pink along the horizon. She looked back at Maddox, noticing she had gotten up early. There was no land in sight for the boat that trudged on.

She sat down next to him again. She looked at her lap while twirling her thumbs around each other. Remembering everything that occurred the night before. He pretty much revealed his life story to her. He was forced into something because he had powers. Whoever captured him used him for his power, and he had to basically fight his way out. Then finding out everyone he knew was dead. So it made sense to come all the way to an outer planet like Pandora.

Yet all she revealed to him was about her Dad, and the one piece of hope he had given her so long ago. Now that hope was gone, right? There was no way she'd find love on this planet, right? Gaige looked over her shoulder at Maddox. '...That person will protect you better than I ever could…' Maddox had saved her life multiple times already, but was it better than her Dad? She thought long and hard about this, her Dad saved her from possible execution, even some school bullies when she was younger. But really it was just one time saving her life. Maddox had saved all of them when the train blew up, tackled her as he came in contact with bullets, and even put a protective barrier around her when the Suicide Psycho tried to kill her. This of course nearly killed him. So the answer to the question was 'yes.' He could very easily protect her better than her Dad.

Without even realizing it, she leaned against his shoulder. Then mumbled, "Maybe not all hope has been lost."

* * *

"Laaand Hoooooo," Clap Trap said waking up everyone on the ship. Gaige slowly opened her eyes as she sat up. Looking at her 'pillow, she saw Maddox slowly begin to awaken. Maddox had a slight blush as he realized that the two of them had fallen asleep together. He glanced at Gaige and gave her a weary smile. Gaige returned the smile, not wanting to make the awkward situation worse. The rest of the group climbed out of the room below them, noticing the two youngest members were already up. Maya eyed Maddox carefully, Maddox noticed but figured he should sort out the problem later. Besides, when they got to Sanctuary Maddox was planning on leaving for his own quest. But he also was desperately trying to find an excuse to stay and help the rest finish their 'Handsome What's His Face' quest.

Maddox stood up and looked over the front end of the boat. Noticing they were going pretty fast despite that land was pretty close. "Clap Trap, don't you think you should slow down?" Maddox asked him.

"What?" Clap Trap asked not understanding him.

"Slow down."

"No. You can trust me, I'll stop this thing before -" the boat slammed into the shore flinging everyone forward slightly. Maddox however was standing to close to the edge and was knocked off. Maddox tried to catch himself knowing the boat would crush him as it was still trying to push through the thick ice. However, he missed the ledge sealing his fate. Crushed by a boat. Driven by Clap Trap. Well… at least that's what he thought his fate was.

Just before it was too late, Gaige caught his wrist with her cyber arm and she began to pull him up. Maddox then grabbed onto the ledge when close enough and helped pull himself up.

Once Maddox was safe and the boat had stopped moving. Gaige simply sat on her knees looking down at her lap with her hands on the skirt. "Gaige? Are you ok?"

Gaige didn't answer for a couple minutes. "Don't… die… please."

Maddox was stunned by this response and was going to protest. "Gaige I-"

Gaige reacted in angry tears lunging forward her cyber hand gripping tightly against his red shirt. "NO! I told you something last night I had never told anyone before. So don't you dare die on me!"

It was now Maddox's turn to be silent. Except he took longer to respond. "Ok" Maddox wrapped his arms around the teenager bringing her close. Her head resting right on his chest. Her tear stained face twisted in confusion. She knew there were two reasons for this confusion.

One reason was because she was surprised at how she had just reacted. She didn't even know what Maddox was going to say, she had just lost control.

The other reason was his heart beat. It was different. Yes, it had the rhythm of a human heart beat. But there was no thump noise. She couldn't even feel the heart beat. Out of pure curiosity she tried to listen deeper and sunk even more into his chest. It was a weird sound. Something she had only heard in movies. It sounded like a electronic reactor was pulsing. Kinda like a generator. It sounded just like the sound of an electronic heartbeat.

"Uhh… Gaige?" Maddox said slightly uncomfortable.

Gaige looked up then immediately jumped off of him. Both faces turning red. The rest of them looked at the two. All wondered what exactly had transpired. Maya was still looking as pissed as ever. "Maddox? Could we have a chat? The rest of you go on. We'll catch up." Maya said through clenched teeth.

The rest nodded and began to leave. Gaige looked at Maya, who returned her with a reassuring smile. Finally the two were alone.

"Is everything alright?" Maddox asked the siren.

"No." She said simply.

Maddox waited for a continuation. But one never came. "Ok… so what's wrong?"

"You."

"Uhhh k, care to elaborate?"

"You need to stop doing that to her."

Maddox immediately knew who the 'her' was. "Stop doing what?"

"Scaring her, almost getting yourself killed. Most of all stop lying to her."

"The first two I understand. But what am I lying about."

"You need to stop lying about the planet your from, stop lying about your backstory to her. Stop lying about why you're here.

"What are you talking about? Those were all true."

"Really? Because I studied the maps of the universe and I have never found a planet called Rehtona Noisnemid. So if your planet doesn't even exist then clearly you being captured is a big fluke because I'm sure that would have caught the attention of major companies to try and use you too. Also there has not been a single hint that this other you is even on this planet."

"Ok you got me there. Yea Rehtona is not a planet. It's a moon. The company that colonized is were planning to colonize the planet which we now call Radmetal. You've heard of that right?"

"Ok. Yes I have heard of it. But it's not on any maps because-"

"Because is is inhabitable. Instead the company found a single moon that orbited the planet. The moon soon became known as Rehtona. Eventually the company left and forgot about it. Leaving the people to fend for themselves. That's why it's so undeveloped. We have no echo device and a lot of the weapons and military technology mirror that of the very first human planet way back in the 21st century."

"So if you're saying it's that underdeveloped. How'd did you get off with no spaceship?"

"I had two things that I don't have right now that got me off. One of those things was an armored suit. This armored suit not only enhanced my powers, but it kept me from passing out. The thing's thrusters were powerful enough to push me away from the gravitational pull of the moon. While I can fly now. It causes a more likely chance to pass out, on top of that it won't break the gravity. I also had a car. The car didn't help me get off the planet but I was able to bring it with me using a cable attached to my suit."

"What's so special about this car? The armored suit I could see how that's special and I have a few more skeptical points to try and flatten out there too."

"The car was made way before it's time. I'm talking more advanced than the most advanced car you've ever seen. The car was made out of a type of titanium alloy you only find on space ships. Yet, each alloy was technologically engineered to have a microchip in each piece. All of the pieces, even the tires, are then controlled by a very advanced AI."

"Where did your moon get these materials?"

"A ship that lost control and crashed into Radmetal. A piece of the ship was propelled to our moon. That piece of ship had absolutely no computer systems. Except for two AI. Both AIs lost connection to the mainframe and we could not pull up blueprints to make a ship. Even with all the metal we now had. One of those AI went into the car. The other AI was integrated into my suit. The suit's armor also came from the hull of the ship."

"But why your suit, why your car?"

"While the major authorities of my capture's wanted to use me. One who trained me and helped me control this freak I have begun, had managed to smuggle the AIs and the alloy to his wife. Who was one of the smartest people on Rehtona. The car was already made, given to my trainer for his service in the organization. The armor was already being made with lighter less expensive metal. His wife, took the AI and installed chips into every square inch of the car. She put the AI into the car. Nobody knew of the now sentient AI's existence. Still no one else does. The armor however, she swapped out the original alloy with the more advanced alloy. Once the armor was built. It was smuggled to her by my trainer. She then installed a small generator and the second AI."

"But then what about being here. There has been no evidence of another one like you on Pandora."

"I never said I knew he/she was here. I only said I got it from other sources that pointed in this direction. Which is exactly why once we get to Sanctuary, I'm taking off, I'm going to try and find this other one like me. If I can't. Well at least at that point I'll know. I'm the only freak out here."

"Don't call yourself that."

"Huh?"

"Do you think you should insult yourself like that? Because if you're calling yourself a freak, because you're so different, wouldn't that make all Sirens a freak? If you're calling yourself a freak because you're not fully human. Doesn't that mean Gaige is also a freak?"

"...I…"

"I stand here, having just witnessed how much it effects Gaige when you almost die. Yet you talk to me like you're going to leave everyone behind. Here you are making Gaige worry so much about you because she really cares about you, yet you don't even seem to really notice."

"...I-I didn't know she could care that much about me. I didn't know anyone could."

"Well she does, do you know how bad she felt when you saved her from the suicidal psycho and passed out?"

"No, I guess not."

"It made her wish she stayed on Eden 5 and got whatever punishment she deserved because all she thought she did was put you in more danger."

"I'm sorry… it's just. I'm too scared to let anyone into my life like that. I've had nothing but a giant target painted on my back for the past three years and I haven't been able to trust anyone. Those I could trust were always killed. I'm just afraid to lose someone like Gaige. Especially again."

"Again?"

"...Anika. A childhood friend of mine. I had known her for so long. I actually ended up in love with her. But when I was captured by the organization and stuck in it for three years. By the time I got out. Anika had committed suicide. Thinking she was the reason for my death. Originally what had changed me was going to change Anika. I was able to intervene, at the cost of her believing I was dead."

"Are you saying you like Gaige?"

"I don't know. But I'm sure if this keeps up. Where we are in countless situations where we must depend on each other for survival. I may develop something. I'm just afraid that I'll do something that will make me seem dead, then Gaige will blame herself, take herself out, when I'm actually alive trying to get back to her."

"Does she know you're leaving?"

"Yes...she does."

"Well, we probably need to go and catch up. They're probably wondering where we're at."

Maya and Maddox then began to catch up with the others. Finding bullymong corpses on their way up the cliff side. "What took you so long amigos?" Sal asked once they were in sight of them. "We digistructed a couple runner vehicles. Problem is they only fit two people, some of us will need to hold on. Tightly."

Axton threw Maya a grenade. "Found this in a chest."

"Thank you." Maya caught it.

Maddox walked up to Gaige who gave him a half heartened smile. She had just killed more bandits. Maddox threw his arms around her. She was caught off guard and didn't know how to react. "You look like you needed a hug."

"You're not wrong." She said as she leaned into the hug and put her arms around him.

* * *

 **So yeah that is it for now, hope you enjoyed. Nothing much else.**

 **Inventory Update**

 **Axton**

 **Electronic Strike- Dahl Sniper**

 **Incendiary Aegis- Maliwan Pistol**

 **Amped Shield- Hyperion**

 **Sticky Lobbed Standard Grenade- Tediore**

 **Maya**

 **Electronic Spread- Tediore Launcher**

 **Negotiator- Dahl Pistol**

 **Standard Shield- Tediore**

 **Weakened** **Sticky Longbow Transfusion Grenade**

 **Maliwan**

 **Salvador**

 **Longrider- Jakob's Shotgun**

 **Electronic Prowler- Maliwan Launcher**

 **Nova Shield- Torgue**

 **Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**

 **Zero**

 **Sniper- Dahl Sniper**

 **Anaconda- Dahl Pistol**

 **Nova Shield- Torgue**

 **Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**

 **Gaige**

 **Rifle- Vladof AR**

 **Electronic Vexation- Maliwan SMG**

 **Booster Shield- Dahl**

 **Acidic Sticky Longbow Transfusion Grenade- Maliwan**

 **Krieg**

 **Pounder- Torgue Shotgun**

 **Incendiary Launcher- Bandit Launcher**

 **Incendiary Spike Shield- Maliwan**

 **Electronic Homing Bettie Grenade- Dahl**

 **Maddox**

 **Boom- Torgue Launcher**

 **Incendiary Sniper- Dahl Sniper**

 **Roid Shield- Bandit**

 **Incendiary Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**


	8. Chapter 8

**Hey guys sorry for the very long delay, I've been pretty sick and had a really bad case of writer's block. Plus school has been annoyingly busy ever since track started. But that's not really an excuse. I know there is not that many of you but I want to know your opinion on some things. But you'll need to read this chapter to understand what I'm asking. So read on!**

Chapter 8: Sanctuary

* * *

Maddox clung tightly onto the runner that was speeding through the ice cleft. He looked to check if Krieg had fallen off, however he was standing on the top of the other runner like it was an escalator. Maddox's other friend was Salvador as he was also clinging tightly to the runner. Gaige was manning the turret while Maya drove. On the other runner Zero had the turret and Axton drove. Maddox ducked as Gaige swiveled the turret around to shoot at a bullymong. Finally they made it out of the cleft into an open space. Making a small jump onto the ground below them. They made a turn onto a road that led to Sanctuary. Axton saw a bandit that was banging on the gate to Sanctuary.

Axton rammed straight into him. Smashing the bandit all over the gate. The neighbors heard the racket and began to fire at the runners. The two gunners turned and began to shoot at them while everyone else got off and began to shoot them. The bandits were quickly wiped out and Maddox went over to press a green button.

"How many times do I gotta tell you bloodshots. We're not letting you in." A guy over The speaker had said. "Wait a minute you're vault hunters. Roland's been waiting on you. I'll let him talk to you."

"Hey there, I heard about you." A voice came from the speaker which they assumed was Roland. "I used to be a vault hunter like you. Until I joined the crimson raiders." Maddox noticed he said that last part pretty fast, telling Maddox he was proud of his decision. "If you want in you need to prove you can be a raider. Corporal Reiss, we lost contact with him. We need you to go and find him." The speaker cut out.

"Mount up. Let's find Reiss." Maddox said as he climbed onto the Runner. Everyone else began to climb into their places. The two drivers drove one behind the other. They crossed under a small bandit bridge and decided to stop to look for a sign of Reiss. They took out the bandits and Maddox went up to a door, suddenly an awesome psycho and awesome nomad burst through the door, knocking Maddox back into the railing. Maddox dodged right when the psycho swiped at him. Maddox took his Incendiary Sniper and threw it at the psycho. Maddox jumped off the railing and landed on psycho's back. The psycho tried to swing at Maddox with his ax, however Maddox swung under its arm and kicked the psycho over the railing.

Maddox then jumped off the wall as the nomad swung his spiked riot shield at him. Maddox tumbled behind him picking up his Dalh sniper and fired a shot at the nomad. The nomad was set on fire but it continued to try and shoot Maddox with its shotgun. "You know I could use some help up here!" Maddox said looking down at them as he ducked under a spread of pellets. Gaige aimed her Rifle at the nomad and fired the full auto weapon at him. The nomad moved his shield to block her fire as Maddox ran up grabbed his wrist that held the shield and broke its wrist. Maddox removed the shield and impaled the nomad against the wall. Maddox, relaxed on his knees. "Well...That was fun." Maddox looked around as the rest came up. "Oh, there's a chest in the room they came from." Maddox said as he got up and walked into the room. He bent over and opened the chest, "Are you kidding me?" Maddox was disappointed. "It's all crap."

Gaige looked at Maddox as he was hunched over, noticing a gigantic gash on his arm. "Maddox, your arm is falling off again." Maddox looked at his arm which was barely hanging on to him.

"You know sometimes I hate this body. I never know if I get cut or shot when using my ability." Maddox said as the arm instantly repaired.

"You're using your power? Won't that-"

"It doesn't use a whole lot to repair or dampen pain. I just didn't use it back in the Southern Shelf because I didn't know how much I had left."

"Oh ok."

"No sign of this Reiss guy. Let's keep looking." Axton said.

The crew all got back into their Runners and continued to drive around for Reiss. Maya ran into a skag on 'accident.' Gaige looked at the Skag and noticed something kinda blue. "Stop the Runner!" Maya applied the brakes and the vehicle came to a stop. Gaige jumped out of the turret and ran over to the dead skag. She dug in its mouth a but and pulled out an echo device.

"...I got the power core from the bloodshots. They're hot on my trail, I'm going to lose them in the marrow fields." The echo recording from Reiss ended.

"Check the marrow fields, he might be in there." Gaige announced as she got back into the turret. Axton and Maya drove the Runners towards the Marrow Fields.

"We can't go any further, let's go on foot." Axton said as they came up to a claw like ice shape blocking the entrance. Everyone hopped of the Runners and went into the Marrow Fields.

"We got you know you Sanctuary Skaglick." A bandit not to far away shouted.

"If anyone is out there, I need help, noow!" Reiss cried out.

"Come on, we need to move!" Maddox said as he took off into a sprint towards the shouting. Everyone else's followed him, however they all became ambushed by Bullymongs. Maddox turned around to help them.

"No keep going, we can take them." Gaige told him.

Maddox nodded and began to run back up the hill. Maddox saw three Crazed Marauders jumping and hitting a grey figure which he assumed was Reiss. Maddox ran forward and punched one of the bandits out using his power for extra force. The bandit he punched ended up impaled by his fist. Maddox threw the dead bandit at another that was running up to attack him with his shotgun. The third bandit tried to melee him, Maddox grabbed the overthrown fist and twisted it, breaking the bandits arm. The second bandit shot with his shotgun, Maddox grabbed the barrel and aimed it at the third killing him. Maddox ripped the shotgun from the bandit's hands and turned it on him and blew a shell into him.

Maddox dropped the shotgun and ran over to Reiss. "A Vault Hunter? Didn't think I ranked that much of a rescue."

"Sorry not a Vault Hunter. But I'm here to help you out anyways. Where are you hurt?"

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine. The bloodshots grabbed the power core. Sanctuary needs that core. Go get it for me."

"Alright, you sure you don't need help?"

*Cough* "Yea, I'm going to take a nap, just wake me up when I'm not on Pandora anymore." Reiss said as he fell limp.

"Reiss? Reiss wake up! Fudge!" Maddox turned the body onto its back and removed the helmet and started doing CPR. Reiss didn't move, he was gone.

Maddox slowly stood up, looking at the corpse in front of him. "Woh ynam elpoep evah ot eid, erofeb uoy tel em ekat lortnoc?" The entity spoke. (How many people have to die, before you let me take control?)

Maddox didn't respond, he looked around to keep his mind off of the body in front of him. He spotted a chest on top of a abandoned building. Maddox went towards the chest and opened it. Finding a Rubberized MIRV inside. He picked up the grenade, going to give it to Maya.

Maddox walked back to the rest. He tossed Maya the grenade. "Where's Reiss?" Axton asked.

Maddox stayed silent. He didn't want to talk. "I think we all know what happened to him." Gaige concluded with Maddox's silence.

"Reiss is dead. Darn, he was one of the first in the Crimson Raiders. There's a bloodshot camp nearby. See if you can find the power core in there." Roland said over the echo.

Everyone walked towards the camp which wasn't too far away. Maddox walked behind the group, his walk slowing with each step. His eyes burned with anger and drowned in grief. Gaige slowed her steps in order to walk with him.

Maddox hardly acknowledged her presence, just kept walking, not saying a word. Gaige wanted to try and talk to him. But she didn't know how to start the conversation.

They continued to walk in silence for some time. Maddox's expression didn't change, and Gaige didn't like it. Even if she didn't know him all that well, she definitely knew about him. Underneath all the pain he had gone through the past three years, there had to be a cheerful sarcastic dork. One of which she had never seen yet. One that she wanted to see at least once. "Can I ask what happened?" Gaige asked.

"He died."

Gaige tensed up but quickly calmed herself down already knowing that he was dead. "May I ask how?"

"Bandits"

Gaige let out a hefty breath. "Could you explain a little further?"

"Bandits beat him to death."

"Was he alive when you got there?"

"Yes."

"Did you guys talk?"

"Yes."

"What did you talk about?"

"Power core."

"Did you try to help him?"

Maddox hesitated the next step and froze. "He said he didn't need any help." Maddox regained composure and walked ahead. Gaige would try to talk to him later. He needed time, Gaige would give him some.

Maddox, Zero, and Axton took sniping positions. Maddox aimed down his scope at a suicide midget. Images of Reiss lying dead flashed randomly through the camp. Maddox shook his head getting the images out of his head. "Do me a favor guys. Keep one of the psychos alive." Maddox said as he shot a midget in the head.

The camp came to life as at least 30 bandits came out of doorways. "That's a lot of bad guys." Gaige said as the massive wave approached.

"Do you think we can handle that many?" Maya asked no one in particular.

"We need to." Maddox simply said. Maddox's eyes glowed red and he put his hand to his chest. His hand started to glow red and Maddox placed his hand on the Incendiary Sniper's Maliwan barrel. The sniper began to turn completely black as the scope stretched into a more modern (our tech) scope. Both ends of the scope glowed red. The barrel stretched and just the part that surrounded the bullet grew even longer. The end of the muzzle then turned into a square rectangle with slots on each side for the muzzle flash. Each one of the slots had a dimmed red glow to it. The incendiary packs then started to glow red instead of their fire orange color. The rest of the sniper remained the same other than its black night color. He fired this time a red streak could be seen from the bullet path.

He struck a nomad that was ordering around other bandits and the plasma must have went straight through his head as it also killed a marauder behind him. The bandits began to fire in their direction now knowing Maddox's general position. Everyone else began to strategically run forward into the base. Axton began to shoot with his Incendiary Aegis and killed a suicide psycho running towards him. As the psycho dropped the grenade, Axton dived for it and threw it at a Shield nomad stunning him. Axton took this chance to finish the rest of his Incendiary mag into the nomad which had killed him. He quickly reloaded the Maliwan Pistol and ducked behind cover as a psycho ran up to him with his buzz ax. Axton dodged the fatal blade and grabbed the psychos wrist and flipping him over his body. Axton finished it off with his pistol.

Maya was using her Dahl Pistol and trapped a nomad in phaselock as she killed a marauder with a couple bursts to its chest. Maya jumped and kicked the nomad out of the phaselock who landed on a suicide midget killing the midget and causing its bomb to detonate which also killed the nomad.

Salvador missed a shell from his shotgun and the short man had to tuck and roll to avoid the spiked shield. Salvador shot again but the shield was still taking the pellets. Salvador decided to try something different, this time he grabbed onto the spikes as the shield was swung. Salvador used this momentum to swing around to the nomad using it and was able to hit the awesome nomad at point blank range with his Longrider. "Midgets are awesome you stupid shield holding amigo" Salvador spat. Salvador noticed a crazed marauder shooting him with his shotgun. Salvador ran at him his shield taking all the different pellets. When his shield let out its nova the marauder was knocked against the wall and Sal grabbed his shotgun and aimed both shotguns at marauder and let both shells tear him apart. Sal dropped the shotgun that wasn't his and looked for his next target a nomad that was screaming at a midget. Sal went towards them and took the nomad by surprise and killed him.

The midget however was still a bandit and began attack Sal. Which Zero prevented by shooting it with his Sniper. Zero scoped in at a marauder as he was falling from his ledge he had managed to climb. Zero fired his weapon killing the marauder as he landed. Zero looked around for another enemy when he ducked under a awesome nomad swinging its spiked shield. Zero proceeded to aim his sniper at the nomad but the bullet found a metal shield instead. Zero had to pull out his sword in order to protect himself from the next swing. Zero was knocked onto the ground and rolled out of the way when the nomad tried to smash him. Zero grabbed his sword and jumped to cut down his enemy. However the nomad put his shield up and Zero landed on it like it was a platform. Zero raised his sword and was able to pierce it through the shield into the nomads body. Zero caught himself as his platform faltered and looked at Krieg.

Krieg swung his buzz ax up and cut a marauder's arm off. Quickly then throwing it as it began to grind deeper into a psychos skull. Krieg ran and bulldozed a marauder to the ground, quickly grabbing him and throwing him to the ground near the psycho that was being grounded by the buzz ax. Krieg ripped the ax out and swung down at the nomad. The ax ripped at the clothing and flesh eventually killing the struggling nomad.

Gaige fired her Maliwan SMG at a marauder, the marauder could be heard shouting insults at her for every time she missed. The marauder fired at her taking out her shields and Gaige tried to fire at him again. Finally a bolt hit him and he screamed in agony as the bolt fried his leg. Gaige finished him off and moved on to a suicide midget. She froze only for a second remembering the last time she faced a suicidal bandit. Quickly firing and praying she'd hit something knowing that her anarchy was throwing everything off. Luckily a bolt had hit the grenade in the midgets hand and caused it to explode in its hand. Gaige turned just in time to see a psycho trying to swing its ax at her. Gaige knew she had no time to dodge and brought her cybernetic arm up and the ax dug halfway into the arm. Gaige felt her left hand go numb as the circuit nerves were cut, still feeling her left arm she brought it to the ground taking the ax away from the psycho. Gaige punched the psycho with her right hand and put a crack in its mask. Gaige used this to take the ax out of her arm and swung the ax at the psycho and hit its neck. Gaige relaxed and looked at her destroyed arm, knowing that it wouldn't be repaired until she had the parts. Parts she wouldn't get until she was in Sanctuary.

Maddox fired again. A red streak going through a thick metal beam and killing the marauder behind it. Maddox fired again. This time the red streak went through a nomad's spiked shield into its head and coming through the other side hitting an awesome psycho in the leg. The psycho collapsed to the ground and looked at his wound. The red glow from the plasma began to spread. Soon his whole leg was glowing red and starting from where the wound was it began to disintegrate. The whole psycho was soon nothing but a pile of ash and dust. Maddox stood up knowing there were 7 more bandits still alive. Maddox looked at the metal beam he had shot earlier. Seeing that it was weakened from the living plasma. The plasma would soon be dead from its exposure to the outside world. As it was no longer safe in its capsule. Noticing 5 bandits under the platform the beam supported, Maddox used the damaged beam and lifted his hand up and caused the remainder of the beam to collapse on itself. The 5 bandits underneath were killed and Maddox looked around for the last 2. Seeing there was one psycho and a marauder still alive. Maddox began to walk down into the camp. Knowing that the other 6 could easily take them out.

He made it into the camp and sure enough the marauder was killed. The psycho however was tied up against a pole. "Gaige remembered that you wanted a psycho alive." Axton explained.

Maddox had forgotten that he had requested such an action. His blood lust had taken over his memory and all he knew was kill. "Thank you. I forgot I asked you to do that. Did someone find the power core?"

"Yea, it's right here." Maya held up the cylinder object. "Why did you want the psycho alive?"

"I'm about to interrogate it. My methods of interrogation are unique. You won't find anyone else in this universe that interrogates how I do. But you wouldn't want to watch. I don't know what happens when I do, but it's not pretty."

They were unsure of what he meant. How could you not know what you're doing when you're the interrogator? They all watched Maddox walk up to the psycho. His hand glowed red and his eyes began to glow a bright red when Maddox touched the psycho. The psycho shifted, it began burning and freezing all at once. Even though it was a psycho it screamed in agony. Bits of red dust flew into the psycho's eyes. It's skin began to melt and freeze off. Leaving exposed muscle tissues that began to freeze and melt as well. Gaige looked away, he was right. It wasn't pretty.

Maddox saw himself seeing all the way through the psycho's life up until this moment. However, he only paid attention to one segment. Rewinding the memory over and over getting all the details he could. Hyperion. Test subjects. Slag experimentation. A young girl clutching to her father's leg and mother's dress. Noticing the weird looking grenade hidden in the folds of the girls dress.

Maddox understood. Sad seeing a little girl and her parents possibly have perished. This psycho must have survived the experimentation and just went insane. Maddox's eyes stop glowing red. Seeing the corpse in front of him. It's flesh was burnt and parts of the outer layer was frozen off in chunks. Maddox knew when he looked into someone's memories it did horrific things to them. But he never knew just how horrific it was. The psycho's mask was burnt off and sealed into the flesh of its face. The visor was broken however. It's eyes, the psycho's true eyes that were always hidden behind a mask. They were morphed and changed as well. But they looked peaceful. There was no iris or pupil. Just a black void with tiny dots. Tiny dots that one could mistake as stars. But Maddox knew those dots of light was where Maddox's conscious had entered into the psycho's soul. Being the literal window to a soul.

Maddox looked at the group. Seeing Gaige had turned around completely, Maya was clenching her eyes shut, Zero had his head tilted away, Salvador stood wide eyed, Axton looked like he was about to throw up, even Krieg looked uneasy. "Sorry you had to see that. Let's search the camp for any loot, then head back to Sanctuary."

Zero found a single chest, "Nothing here."

"Alright off to Sanctuary." Axton said holding his stomach.

* * *

 **There you have it, chapter 8. So what did you think? Again sorry it took so long to get it done. Now before I go, If you are interested in knowing how Maddox's sniper works with it being living plasma would you like me to explain how it works as an author note like I do before and after each chapter, or do you want me to have Maddox explain how it works with dialogue? Also how about the gore, is it too much, not enough, or is it perfect?**

 **Inventory Update:**

 **Axton**

 **Electronic Strike- Dahl Sniper**

 **Incendiary Aegis- Maliwan Pistol**

 **Amped Shield- Hyperion**

 **Sticky Lobbed Standard Grenade- Tediore**

 **Maya**

 **Electronic Spread- Tediore Launcher**

 **Negotiator- Dahl Pistol**

 **Standard Shield- Tediore**

 **Rubberized MIRV- Torgue**

 **Salvador**

 **Longrider- Jakob's Shotgun**

 **Electronic Prowler- Maliwan Launcher**

 **Nova Shield- Torgue**

 **Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**

 **Zero**

 **Sniper- Dahl Sniper**

 **Anaconda- Dahl Pistol**

 **Nova Shield- Torgue**

 **Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**

 **Gaige**

 **Rifle- Vladof AR**

 **Electronic Vexation- Maliwan SMG**

 **Booster Shield- Dahl**

 **Acidic Sticky Longbow Transfusion Grenade- Maliwan**

 **Krieg**

 **Pounder- Torgue Shotgun**

 **Incendiary Launcher- Bandit Launcher**

 **Incendiary Spike Shield- Maliwan**

 **Electronic Homing Bettie Grenade- Dahl**

 **Maddox**

 **Boom- Torgue Launcher**

 **Incendiary Sniper- Dahl Sniper**

 **Roid Shield- Bandit**

 **Incendiary Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**


	9. Chapter 9

**Hello once again, sorry that the wait was longer than usual but at least it wasn't as slow as the last chapter. Nothing much to say other than that I messed up a bit on the Inventory System with everyone getting one more weapon slot and completely forgot about it. But that's it so read on...**

* * *

Chapter 9: Sorrow and Grief

With their luck, once they made it into Sanctuary Roland was MIA, possibly a POW. So instead they helped this crazy mechanic named Scooter install a bunch of fuel drives or something into little pillars that were supposed to make the city fly. They didn't work.

Axton went into a small hospital because he was still feeling sick from the little show Maddox gave them. Of course the doctor said he was fine and had him help with surgery on some Hyperion retard that decided to swallow a chunk of eridium. In short the Hyperion guy died and left blood all over the place. Dr. Zed tried to warn Axton that he was not an actual doctor. Which explains why the surgery was messy.

Salvador left and was with Clap Trap who ordered him to collect a ton of rocks for some stupid stash. Which the hiding place for it fell apart so he didn't have to do anything. Maya, Zero, and Krieg all were in the command center. Gaige was with Marcus, a munitions trader, and was helping him test out the new elemental weapons that came in.

Maddox however sat on the rooftop. The images he got from the psycho burned in his mind. Questioning if the girl had survived if her parents did, where could they be. Then there was Reiss laying there all bloody and broken and dead. All these burned into his mind at once and made him want to disappear. Wish he had never come to this world to find these things, wished he never sought to find someone like him, wished he never became a freak, wished that he could just restart his life and pretend that none of it happened!

Unable to take it anymore Maddox flew into the sky using a good amount of his energy and shot back down straight into a bandit camp causing a brilliant angry red explosion of plasma and fire! Maddox stood up, his eyes blinked red every couple of seconds. There was nothing left of the camp. Buildings and bandits were all disintegrated into nothing. Just a big crater that billowed with smoke and Maddox was right in the middle of it.

* * *

Gaige had walked out of the munitions store and went into the command center. Seeing everyone was there except for Maddox. She knew he planned on leaving when they came to Sanctuary, but she at least thought he'd say goodbye. "I guess he already left." Gaige said looking at the floor.

"Yea… I guess he did. I didn't even see him leave." Axton confirmed.

Suddenly, they heard a very loud noise that shook everything. They all rushed to the outside balcony and saw a giant red mushroom shape that came from an explosion.

"Could that be?" Maya turned to Gaige who was nowhere to be seen.

Gaige was already out of Sanctuary and in a Runner headed straight for the explosion that was echoed with black smoke leaving a known bandit camp. Gaige finally made it to the bandit camp, at least what was left of it. The smoke was thick black and because she didn't have her arm repaired yet she wasn't willing to go in the pitch black area not knowing what she may run into. "Maddox?" She called, there was no answer. "Maddox?" She said desperately hoping he was ok. Still no response came from the smoke cloud. Thinking she had no other option, she disappeared into the thick black smoke. Covering her mouth and nose and squinting her eyes as best she could as she ventured into the endless void. "Maddox?" She called again and instantly regretted it as she breathed in a thick cloud of black smoke. She began to cough violently, breathing in the fumes of burnt corpses and disintegrated metal. Her cough began to get worse and she began to collapse with the intensity of her coughs. She fell flat and felt her vision fade. But just before the darkness consumed her consciousness she saw a blink of red eyes for a good two seconds.

* * *

2 months before Maddox lands on Pandora

Maddox landed in front of a house and knocked on the door. Where Anika's mom opened it. Her eyes widened, "Maddox you're alive. Look I haven't seen Anika for a long time. I don't know if she's alive, but you need to find her before she kills herself. If she hasn't already." She said panicking.

Anika laid in the field that was now with long grass. She got up and pulled out her knife. She decided that if she was going to kill herself it would be in the field where her and Maddox made so many memories. Taking the knife she cut her knee. Watching the blood run down her leg. Failing to notice that some of the blood began flying in a certain direction. She then put the knife down, and picked up a gun that she was hiding under her shirt. She began to load it. The flying blood then landed on Maddox. His eyes glowed red for a split second and he knew exactly what Anika was doing and where she was. He flew in that direction, hoping he'd make it in time.

Maddox made it to the field and was unable to find her because of the long grass. He used his ability to look for her heat signature, as soon as he located her, he flew into her direction. She was still alive, so he could make it. However, when she came into his view a loud bang sounded off, and Anika dropped to the ground.

Maddox halted to a stop. "No!" Maddox couldn't believe it. He knelt down at her body, she was dead. She committed suicide.

* * *

Present

Gaige tried to sit up but was unable to use her left arm. Remembering that her left arm was still damaged she propped herself on her right arm and looked around; however, she couldn't really see anything. "Hello?" she asked trying to find out what was happening. She rubbed her eyes trying to see if that would help her see better. It didn't help much; only to make everything smudged in her dark vision. "Why can't I see anything?" She said to herself.

"You're awake!" Maddox said surprised and relieved.

"Yea, I'm up, where are we? Can you see anything?"

"We're in a skag cave. I can see just fine; but it's because I'm a freak."

"You're not a freak."

"A weirdo?"

"No"

"Numb nut?"

"No"

"A goof nut?"

"No… wait what?"

"Goof nut"

Gaige laughed a bit "I've never heard anyone say that before."

"I'm a first then."

"What did you see when you were in the psycho's head?"

"A girl and her mom and dad in a Hyperion structure. They were going to be test subjects."

"Oh… I see."

"Yeah,"

"So… what happened?"

"I don't know what happened to them. I was in the eyes of the person standing in line behind them. The man before he became a psycho."

"What about the smoke?"

"Oh… uh you couldn't breathe and I found you and took you here."

"No… I mean why did you nuke a bandit camp like that?"

"I uh… I needed to take my anger out."

"Because of what they did to Reiss?"

"No. Because of what I didn't do. Save him."

"You can't blame yourself for what happened."

"Why not? I stood there and believed him when he said he was fine when I should have scanned him for injuries and fixed him up. Maybe me coming to Pandora was a mistake. All I seem to do is make stupid dumb decisions and I got someone killed."

"Don't say that!"

"All I seem to do is make dumb decisions and get people killed."

"Stop it!" Gaige screamed at him; tears threatening at her eyes.

"All I seem to do is-"

"Then why am I still alive?" She snapped, tears still threatened to drip and her eyes were full of anger and sadness. Maddox just stopped and looked at the ground as his eyes continued to blink red. A little faster than it was after he nuked, but not much. "Why am I still alive? If all you do is make dumb decisions that get people killed then how come I'm still alive?"

"Do you know how many people have died because of me? How close they all were to me? I caused the crime on my home planet to skyrocket when I was under the organizations power. This caused my family to die completely. My trainer Ivan Miller who was like a father to me died trying to help fake my death so I could live a normal life, when I should have known that I should have just fought them instead. Then my childhood friend, I should have shouted her name, knocked the gun out of her hand with my power, and she killed herself because she thought I was dead and I was right behind her when she pulled the trigger. All I've done is get the people closest to me killed. So, you want to know why you're still alive? It's because so far you're being lucky. Eventually your luck will run out. I would be the reason for your death."

Gaige didn't say anything for a while. Finally unable to hold back her tears in the dark cave as she collapsed back on her knees. "You're such an idiot."

"That's what I've-"

"Why would their deaths affect you not coming to Pandora? You didn't even know Reiss. So why does one death here on Pandora cause you to wish you didn't come? From what I can tell, all you've done is save lives. You saved mine who knows how many times. You saved everyone in our group on that train when it exploded." She began to move closer to him. Hugging him as tight as she could. Ignoring the dim red light his eyes gave off periodically. "Do you know what that power core did? It's being used as a battery to power a shield that covers Sanctuary from Hyperion. From Handsome Jack. You saved everyone in Sanctuary. So don't leave Pandora, you need to try and help that family you saw in the psycho's head. You need to find out what happened to them. You know it's all Hyperion's fault that they are dead or mutated. Reiss was trying to get the power core to protect Sanctuary from Hyperion, so it's their fault he's dead. Don't leave Pandora when you've done nothing wrong." Tears still streamed down her face.

Maddox put his arms around her, and hugged her tightly. "You're right. I'm such an idiot. I'm sorry. I'm not going to leave Pandora, not yet. Thank you." Every word he said was true, not a single piece of deceit hidden within.

Gaige didn't want to move. She liked their current position, and could easily confirm that she liked him. Maybe even more than like. But she knew that he'd leave the group soon. Off to find this other being like him. "When are you going to leave?"

"Wha? I just said I wasn't."

"I mean to find this other dude like you."

"Oh, I decided that I'd help deal with Hyperion first."

"Really!?" She looked him in his blinking eyes looking for truth.

"Yea, really." He pulled her back into the hug.

"Not that I don't want you to stay, but why?"

"I've got a few reasons." He told her. Maddox didn't know what his main reason was. Maybe it was because staying with this group would give him an easier chance to punish Hyperion for all their crime, or maybe it was the girl in his arms. Maddox didn't know exactly how he felt about her. He knew he was very fond of her, and wasn't wanting to lose her or put her in more danger than she already was. She was more than a friend to him. She was a best friend; a close one.

He held her tighter, and she listened to his heartbeat. She found it comforting, and she didn't know why. Perhaps it was because it told her he was alive; he wasn't some programmed robot like Death Trap or those loader bots from Hyperion. He was alive, and he had human emotions. "Can I ask you something?"

"What is it?"

"You're heart... it's different isn't it. It's not like a human heart is it."

"No… it's not human."

"Can I… uh see it?"

Maddox hesitated for a second, and began questioning himself. Was he willing to reveal what he was; his own weakness that could kill him instantly. Maddox let out a heavy breath. "You'll need to get off my chest to see it."

Gaige nodded and sat up; still in his lap. His chest opened up; the black inside was illuminated by a slowly pulsing bright red crystal shaped object. The crystal was being circled by 4 black crystals that were a little smaller. She lifted her flesh hand to touch it, but looked at Maddox's eyes for permission.

Seeming to know what she wanted; Maddox nodded. Her hand slowly and gently grabbed the crystal. It was perfectly smooth, and she could feel its power in her hand. It had more power than the Hyperion Station's power core. Which was fairly unstable. However, Gaige could tell that this crystals was nowhere near being unstable. It was gentle, and pulsing in her hand. It's brilliant red light would dim just for a second with one pulse. Then the second pulse came, and it would come back to life. She was mesmerized by it. This is what kept Maddox alive, this is what gave him his power, this was Maddox. His conscious, emotions, thinking, all of it was right in the palm of her hand. She gently put the crystal back in his chest, and watched as his chest closed back up; protecting the fragile object.

"Thank you Maddox, for everything." She said as she leaned back into his chest. They were both comfortable and not wanting to move. Sitting in each other's arms for a long while. Finally; Gaige spoke up again. "Maddox, I-I think I'm…" this was it. She just had to say it, to admit it and tell him. "I think I… I'm falling… falling asleep." She finished; cursing herself, for ditching what she was planning to actually do.

"Is that so? Well I guess it's getting pretty late. We should head back to Sanctuary before the others really start to worry about us, of course it's more likely you than me." Maddox said as he began to gently push her off so he could get up. Gaige reluctantly stood up with him, and leaned on him again. He was a head taller than her, so it made it very easy to lean on his shoulder. He led her out of the cage, and kept his eyes a constant bright red so she could see where she was going. Before they made it halfway out; Maddox's eyes stopped glowing red, and they stopped.

"Why are we stopping?" Gaige asked unable to see anything.

"My power, I need to have a recharge soon. We'll need to continue the rest of the way in the dark. My eyes have night vision so if you need to grab onto me; go ahead." Maddox replied to her. Almost immediately her hand went forward and snatched into his hand. She debated whether or not to interlock their fingers as they started to move forward, but ultimately decided against it; thinking it would make it awkward. Their whole way through the rest of the cave; Gaige had a massive blush across her face. She was glad Maddox led the whole way through; because he could have seen it.

After they made out of the cave, Gaige asked, "How far away from the crater are we?"

"Not far, the crater is just right over there." Maddox pointed in Gaige's blindspot to the crater. Gaige looked and was surprised that smoke still rose from it; not as thick and black as before, but still there nonetheless.

"There should be a Runner that I drove here." Gaige informed.

"I'll follow you to it." Maddox said as they walked there. However, when they arrived; there was no Runner in sight. "Uhh… could have bandits gotten to it?"

"Maybe." she sighed, "Let's find a Catch-A-Ride and get out of here."

"No, that'll take too long, I'll fly us there."

"Your power is low, I can't let you do that."

"Yea… I guess you're right." Maddox said defeated. "Actually, do you have your Electronic Vexation on you?"

"Yea?"

"Shoot me with it."

"What?! No, I won't do that."

"I wanna try something, please shoot me."

"No, I will not."

"Why?"

"Why! Uhh hello, you want me to shoot you."

"Look, maybe the electricity bolts it shoots will charge me."

"Huh?"

"The electric gun shoots bolts of electricity right?"

"Yea…"

"I basically run on energy, electricity is energy. You shooting me, should in turn power me up."

"O-ok." Gaige hesitantly took out her Vexation and aimed it at Maddox. She felt her hand shake, since she had to one hand it since her arm still didn't work, and because she was still really unsure about this. She closed her eyes and began to squeeze the trigger, but quickly redirected the gun somewhere else. "I'm sorry, but what if it doesn't work and you get hurt? I-I can't do this."

"Gaige, I've done this before. It'll work; I promise."

"Don't make a girl a promise, if you know you can't keep it." Gaige said as she raised the gun again and closed her eyes as her shaky hand pulled the trigger. The bolts flew out of her gun; hitting Maddox. Just like expected, the bolts simply absorbed into his body, giving him a little power.

Gaige opened her eyes, and looked at Maddox. "See, told you it would work. Now quit standing there and keep unloading on me. I'll pay for the ammo." Maddox gave her a goofy smile.

Gaige blushed, and continued to drain her rounds on him. While she shot; she began thinking. This Maddox that had been buried for so long, was he finally starting to surface. She could tell that the Maddox she was shooting was a different Maddox than she knew, and she liked this one much better. Gaige emptied the last of her rounds into him. "That's all I have, sorry. You'll have to give me yours so I can continue."

"Alright." He gave her his rounds so she could continue to unload into him. Eventually they both ran dry.

"That's all of it." Gaige told him.

"Thank you, it'll hold me a little longer. I've also stored some in a special containment for flying back to Sanctuary with extra weight."

"Did you just call me fat?"

"Eh!? No! I was saying that I'll have to fly with an extra 130ish pounds… I probably should not have said that last part." Maddox looked at a face of fury.

"If my robot arm was working; you would have a giant dent in your forehead."

"Speaking of which let me look at it."

Gaige used her flesh arm to lift the cybernetic arm up to him. Maddox looked at the damage which was caused by a psycho. His hand began to glow red and slowly Gaige felt her arm again.

"Now I made sure you can't punch me until tomorrow morning so don't try it." Maddox looked at her cheaply.

Gaige still had an idea to get revenge. She lifted her arm up, although wanting to bring her arm down fast, she found that the speed gear that when into her shoulder and elbow were tampered with to slow it down. Which explained why she couldn't punch him. It didn't matter though, DT was still summoned. "Decapitate." Gaige said with venom.

Without hesitation, DT used its ion claws and sliced off Maddox's head when he wasn't paying attention. Maddox's body fell over and slumped onto the ground. Almost instantly his body reformed with its head attached upright.

Maddox put his hand on his head. "I probably should have just let you punch me because that gave me a headache."

"Well don't call me fat next time."

Maddox opened his mouth to argue but shut it knowing it would be best to shut up. "Alright well we still need to get back to Sanctuary." Maddox knelt down with his back facing her. "Climb on."

Gaige climbed on and secured herself by wrapping her arms around his neck. Maddox shoes turned into thrusters and they shot up like a bullet. Gaige hung on with all her might not wanting to fall. Eventually they leveled out and Gaige was simply lying on his back looking at the world below them.

"Wow." Gaige said in awe.

"What is it?" Maddox asked her.

"I just… I don't know. I never realized how beautiful Pandora looked."

"Yea… it's hard to notice that when you're not trying to die."

The two flew in silence for a while. Even through his back, Gaige could hear the quiet beat of his heart, or crystal, whatever you want to call it.

"I don't care how many times you say it. You're not a freak, you're human." Gaige told him expecting him to argue, but he didn't. He stayed silent.

They soon arrived in Sanctuary. Maddox slowly descended on the HQ building and landed on the balcony. They both walked inside and saw everyone sprawled on the various furniture. There was even a couple piles of gear for both of them and a note on one of them.

Gaige picked up the note and read it aloud. "Gaige, if you are reading this then you got back before we tried to find you. Sorry we took the Runner but we figured you and Maddox needed to talk. We went ahead and ran some errands for Dr. Zed, Hammerlock, and powered up a small gas stations and got a delivery job out of that. The piles of gear are for you and Maddox. If Maddox has not come back, take his gear. There's also a mission where we need to kill some assassins so we figured we'd do that once you get back."

"There's nothing useful for me in this besides ammo, which the SMG ammo is going to you."

"Same with my pile, nothing useful."

* * *

 **Aaand that's it for now, sorry to leave it with such a bad conclusion but there isn't much else I want to do. At least for this chapter.**

 **Inventory Update:**

 **Axton**

 **Electronic Strike- Dahl Sniper**

 **Competition- Hyperion Sniper**

 **Incendiary Aegis- Maliwan Pistol**

 **Adaptive Shield- Anshin**

 **Sticky Lobbed Standard Grenade- Tediore**

 **Maya**

 **Electronic Spread- Tediore Launcher**

 **Negotiator- Dahl Pistol**

 **Standard Shield- Tediore**

 **Rubberized MIRV- Torgue**

 **Salvador**

 **Longrider- Jakob's Shotgun**

 **Gatling Gun- Jakon's AR**

 **Electronic Prowler- Maliwan Launcher**

 **Standard Shield- Tediore**

 **Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**

 **Zero**

 **Sniper- Dahl Sniper**

 **Anaconda- Dahl Pistol**

 **Nova Shield- Torgue**

 **Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**

 **Gaige**

 **Rifle- Valdof AR**

 **Electronic Vexation- Maliwan SMG**

 **Booster Shield- Dahl**

 **Acidic Sticky Longbow Transfusion Grenade- Maliwan**

 **Krieg**

 **Pounder- Torgue Shotgun**

 **Incendiary Launcher- Bandit Launcher**

 **Acidic Nova Shield- Maliwan**

 **Electronic Homing Bettie Grenade- Dahl**

 **Maddox**

 **Boom- Torgue Launcher**

 **Incendiary Sniper- Dahl Sniper**

 **Roid Shield- Bandit**

 **Incendiary Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**


	10. Chapter 10

**Sorry I haven't posted anything for a while. I haven't had the ability to post but I have had this done for while just no access to post anything.**

* * *

Chapter 10: Assassinating the Assassins

The 7 of them all woke up and got onto the runners and stopped just before they entered the bandit camp. Axton spoke up, "To save time, pick up all loot and let's not look at any of it until we get back to Sanctuary."

They all agreed and went into the camp wiping out many of the bandits and picking up various loot. They went inside and did the same, at least until a siren went off and one of the four assassins came out. Next to Wot was an awesome psycho who began to charge straight at Krieg. The psycho tackled Krieg down into the pit below them, leaving the other six to deal with Wot.

Wot began firing at them from his cover. The six dived into their cover and shot back. Neither of them landing a hit. Maddox dropped his Incendiary Sniper on the ground and caused his arm to turn into a hand cannon. He aimed at the cover of the Hyperion hired Marauder and shot at hit. The plasma burned a hole straight through the cover and hit Wot's shield causing it to completely drain. Meanwhile Krieg just dodged an attack from the psycho's saw and slammed his arm up into its head knocking it onto the ground. Krieg stepped on him and shot his Pounder and ending the psycho's life. Wot knew he had to run to new cover and took the chance, however as soon as he bolted he was slapped with a barrage of bullets and his body flew against the wall lifeless. (For you Xcom fans they were on overwatch.) They moved to the next area and cleared out the bandits until the second assassin came out.

Oney was a nomad with a shield on his back instead of holding it in front like most nomads. However, there were a ton of suicide psycho's pouring out of the gate where he came from. Unlike Wot, Oney charged straight at them and knocked into Maddox. Maddox felt his shield got out and suddenly felt his melee strength go up. Maddox felt himself slammed against the wall knocking the wind out of him. The other six were constantly dealing with suicide psycho after suicide psycho. Maddox was still dazed as the Nomad readied his shotgun to finish him off. Maddox kicked his feet against him and the nomad was surprised that he had that kind of power in his legs. Maddox's eyes turned red and his chest opened up. The four black crystals circling the red glowing one began going faster and faster. The nomad just watched, curious as to what was happening, even the suicide psycho's stopped to watch. Everyone looked at Maddox and saw the energy build up in his chest as the black crystals went to a blinding speed. The glowing red light was almost blinding and then there was nothing.

Time seemed to hit a complete standstill. No one moved, not a single sound was made. The glowing red light had faded. The only things moving were the black crystals. Suddenly, a powerful red beam came shooting out of his chest. The beam disintegrated the nomad and was redirected to every single suicide psycho as Maddox made sure it didn't touch his friends. The beam slowly dissolved and Maddox hunched over as his chest closed back up. Maddox felt himself fall over but was suddenly stopped as Gaige caught him. "Are you alright?" She asked him.

"Well, I just shot out a giant beam that instantly disintegrates everything it touches and held it for about 10 seconds. After I was just slammed against the wall. So yeah, I think I'm fine." Maddox joked. Gaige gave him a look and just dropped him.

"Glad to see your sarcasm is still intact." Gaige said as he was on the ground.

"Ooow" he mumbled into the ground. "That hurt me more than dropping me."

"He's fine, just a little drained." Gaige walked on ahead with the rest.

"So you're just leaving me here? Tears." Maddox said as he propped himself up. His eyes blinked red for a second.

"Rest you idiot. You just used a lot of power to do that." Maya commanded him.

"I'll catch up later then." Maddox dropped his head back onto the ground.

The other 6 nodded and moved on ahead, towards the third assassin, Reeth. Following the same procedure as they did before. Coming in, wiping out surprised bandits. Then maneuvering until remaining bandits were flanked and killed. Reeth came out with a Nomad Taskmaster. Reeth didn't bolt for cover, or charge head on. Reeth was throwing burning objects while the taskmaster stood in front of him so none could hit either from the front. Gaige had to move from her wooden cover as it quickly became ignited. The taskmaster fired at her and her shield began to give. However, a booster appeared out of nowhere and her shield recharged just enough so she could get back into cover.

Zero used D3c3pti0n, and the taskmaster suddenly had an ion sword through his chest. Reeth reacted and hit Zero in the back with his flaming weapon and Zero's shield gave and released an explosion killing Reeth. The six collected the loot and and continued to the next area.

* * *

Maddox stood up and almost immediately collapsed again. He used the wall for support and started heading towards the entrance. His eyes blinked red very frequently. He then saw the area below him. There was a door that he could go through. Hit the enemy from behind while his friends were hitting them from the front. Deciding it would be faster and easier Maddox let himself fall over the railing and hit the ground below him. Maddox stood up again and made his towards the door. Seeing it was locked and figuring it would be less energy consuming to phase through it instead of cut through it. Maddox walked right through the door and continued on.

* * *

Axton ducked just as a blast from a shotgun came from Rouf. Axton was caught by surprise by the fast rat and while his friends were mostly keeping the Taskmasters off of him, Rouf had quickly engaged Axton without warning. Axton tried to run but was too slow for the rat and was knocked to the ground. Axton felt his shield go out and turned to see Rouf readying his Shotgun.

"Say goodnight." Rouf said as he began to pull the trigger. Just then a red streak went straight through Rouf's head. Rouf fell to the ground as the red streak faded away. Axton followed the streak and it led it a black figure who turned and phased through the wall. Axton stood up and saw the taskmasters were dead. The six kept going and eventually and saw Maddox phase through the door that was closed.

"Oh, I guess you're done. I was going to try and help but that didn't work." Maddox said as he sat down. Obviously lightheaded. Axton didn't completely believe him. He just saw a dark figure save his life and phase through a wall. Now he just saw Maddox phase through a metal door. Something wasn't adding up.

"Let's go home, sort out the loot when we get there." Axton commanded. They all agreed and headed home. Turning in various missions and sitting in the HQ for sorting out loot.

"I will take, this Veteran class mod, this Sticky Longbow MIRV, and this Pooshka." Axton said.

Maya grabbed a Rifle, and Fox class mod. Salvador took a Wheelgun, Rifle, and Beast class mod. But he got rid of the Rifle since his Gatling Gun was better. Zero got a Acidic Animosity, Incendiary Fighter, Weakened Anaconda, Electronic Troublemaker, Weakened Striker, and Incendiary Dart. But only kept the Incendiary Fighter and Electronic Troublemaker.

Krieg picked up an Acidic Aegis, Lance, and a Longbow Bettie. He only kept the Lance however.

Gaige grabbed a Weakened Animosity, a Sticky Homing Standard Grenade, Catalyst class mod, and Torpedo. But got rid of the Torpedo.

Maddox collected a Lobbed Electronic Effect Grenade, Callipeen, Incendiary Provocateur, and Acidic Spike Shield. But got rid of the new grenade.

"What are these things?" Maya picked up a small purple outline of a diamond shaped object with spikes coming off of each corner. "It was in a chest with all the other mods, so it must be important."

Gaige recognized the shape of the object being similar and about the same size as Maddox's own energy pumping heart. "I know what it's for!" Gaige excitedly took it from her hand. "Maddox I think it's yours!" She handed it to Maddox.

Maddox took the small purple object and saw it was even slightly angled to fit into his chest. Maddox put the spikes in first and felt them touch at the crystal. The purple shape lightly glowed and Maddox felt a little stronger. "Well I guess if these things are around… then this other guy that's like me… is definitely here on Pandora."

"Well I think that's great and all but me and Maddox need to have a little chat." Axton said then looked towards Gaige. "On our own."

Axton grabbed Maddox by the shoulder and forced him into another room. "What's wrong with Axton?" Maya asked no one in particular. Everyone but Gaige shrugged, Gaige just looked at the door where Axton forced Maddox.

Maddox felt himself forcefully shoved onto a chair. "Axton what's wrong? You've been extremely hostile ever since we started to leave the bandit place."

"Don't play dumb with me. I know that it was you!" Axton practically yelled.

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You say you don't have your armor yet I saw you phase through the wall in your armor. Kill the assassin then phase right back through the same wall. Then you went ahead and phased through the metal gate without your armor."

"What? I seriously don't have my armor. You really think that I would put on this act of passing out on energy usage when I have with me this unlimited generator to keep me powered?"

"Yes I do, maybe you're a bounty hunter from Handsome Jack and this other you is just a cover up story for being here with us."

"Then explain this thing that sticks into my chest. Where would this come from if there is no other me?"

"I don't know! Explain this weird armored figure if it wasn't you!"

Maddox was silent for a moment. Clearly thinking on an answer. Then like it struck him in the face, Maddox's eyes widened in realization. "This armored figure. I know it wasn't me. What if… oh gosh… Axton this armored figure what if it's the other one like me?"

Axton eyes widened also, realizing Maddox could be right. He also reached another conclusion. "This other you, do you know if he's friendly or not?"

Maddox knew what he was getting at. "I don't know, most likely he's not going to be friendly."

"In that case, he may be looking for you. Which means he got really close to finding you and considering the condition you were in. If he found you… Maddox he may have been able to kill you."

"Yeah I know, somehow he has a way to track me, possibly with energy usage he can just track it. First the energy bomb on the bandit fortress and then the powerful beam that I killed Oney with. He's been able to get close."

"Look I don't know about you, but I think we should keep this hushed. Who knows how the others will react knowing that someone is after you."

"Yea, I agree. We should keep this quiet."

* * *

 **There you have it! What do you think? Is the armored figure Maddox or someone like him? Maybe it's neither.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Hey guys sorry again I haven't been doing much with the story. I still am struggling with writers block especially since I don't usually get home till around 8 with school and sports going on. But since it was Christmas break I typed this up within a couple days cause once I start I find it hard to stop. Until I finish the chapter and then it's hard to start again. But you guys are awesome and guilt tripping me because every once in a while I get an email saying someone is following my story and following me and I just feel bad because I have done much. Anyways, those that came for just the relationship between Maddox and Gaige, this one takes a huge step. I originally wasn't planning on doing it in this chapter but I couldn't figure out a better time to do it so threw it in anyway. Anyways enjoy. There's not much plot regarding Maddox's case just the normal Borderlands mission.**

Chapter 11: Hunting the Firehawk

"Hey Maddox!" Axton called to him.

"Yee?"

"Take this echo recorder. That way you can hear the same things we're hearing." Axton threw him the device.

"Thanks." Maddox caught it and equipped it.

"Alright guys mount up, we need to head to Frostburn Canyon." Axton commanded everyone else.

They arrived in Frostburn and Angel started to talk to them. "The Firehawk should be around here somewhere. Stay alert!"

They began to fight through the bandit camp and soon realized that there was another bandit faction there. Blood shots vs Children of the Firehawk.

"I'm not sure if it's easier the bandits are killing each other or if it's harder since we have to fight twice the amount of bandits." Maya said as she killed a flame psycho.

"I don't know. But further into this cave is more than the two factions." Maddox said as he scanned through the cave with his X-ray. "I'm seeing some massive spiders crawling around in there."

"Is that it?" Axton asked more for their follower.

"That looks like that's it. But I also don't see Roland or the Firehawk they might be able to hide from my vision." Maddox answered confirming that their follower can simply turn invisible.

"At least we know we're going the right way." Salvador looked at a bloodshot nailed to a wall with his hand pointing in a direction.

They still fought their way through and fought off the nasty spiders that were indeed massive. "Shoot their butt. They basically explode when you do that." Maddox called out.

"These things are gross and nasty." Gaige commented.

"Is there a difference between the gross and nasty?" Maddox mocked as he shot a spiderant in the butt with his SMG.

"Yes. Gross because they look like a cross between a spider and a cockroach and nasty because they smell and are even worse when they explode." Gaige answered him as she blew off the leg of a spider with her pistol.

"Can't argue with that." Maddox replied as he shot a spider that was leaping at Gaige.

"Thanks."

"No problem."

They continued to fight through the icy cold cave. Coming up on an awesome psycho that charged straight at Maddox. Maddox quickly vaulted right over it and kicked it. The psycho lost its balance and tripped over the staircase and plummeted to the floor.

Immediately, it got back up and ran up the stairs towards Maddox, until it found a buzz axe from Krieg in its skull. Yet another awesome psycho took Maddox by surprise and tacked Maddox over the stairs. Maddox felt his shield give out and the Psycho raised his buzz axe to split open Maddox's skull.

The buzz axe quickly headed for his head but just before it reached him Maya phaselocked the psycho. "Fire." She simply said and everyone began firing into the glowing ball that trapped the Psycho. Maddox just watched, stunned by the sudden attack. The phaselock ended and the dead psycho fell onto the ground. Maddox stayed still, not really wanting to move.

"Maddox let's go." Sal spoke to him. He still didn't move. "Maddox? Are you alright?"

Maddox still did nothing. Just stared up at the sky. Gaige went over and sat down next to him. "Hey... is everything ok?"

"Uh… maybe we all should just go on ahead. Leave them alone for a bit." Maya whispered to the rest of them. They silently agreed and so did Krieg surprisingly. Not that he wouldn't agree. Just silence wasn't normal for him. They all went on ahead to continue with the mission. Gaige stayed back to figure out what was wrong with Maddox.

Gaige looked up to what he was looking at and saw nothing. "Is there something you can see?"

He still said nothing. She decided to get directly in front of him. However, it seemed like he wasn't there. His body was here but his mind was somewhere else. He just continued to stare past her.

Maddox was trying to figure something out. Looking up at the sky remembering flying over this portion of the planet when he entered the atmosphere. His car had suddenly detached from him and had fallen towards the planet. If he could find out where his car may have landed, it would make things a whole lot easier. He was totally oblivious to Gaige, even when she blocked his vision he was locked in his memories trying to figure out where and when the car detached. However, he had no luck in the matter.

Gaige decided that she should shake him and so she did. Quite violently. Maddox shook his head. "Pandora to space cadet." Gaige called him.

In shock Maddox grabbed her arms and screamed a little. "Oh my gosh, how long have you been there." His eyes went wide as he realized where he was.

"I've been here for like 5 minutes. What happened are you alright?"

"Yea, I'm fine. Why?"

"Well I don't know maybe because a psycho and you just fell off a cliff and you didn't get up. I was just worried and so was everyone else." Gaige said a little agitated at him.

"Oh… sorry. Yea I was trying to figure something out."

"Yea whatever. Come on let's catch up with the rest." Gaige said getting up obviously not in a good mood.

Maddox wasn't going to let her walk off with her being angry with him. So he caught her human arm and pulled her back down. "Gaige… I'm sorry ok. I didn't mean to scare you like that. I didn't realize you were on edge, I was just trying to figure out where my equipment may have landed when I entered Pandora. Normally something like this wouldn't set you off. Is there something else going on that I should know about?"

She didn't move and began to break. "I'm just really tired of fighting. I hardly can sleep anymore because whenever I try I just see every masked face of everyone I've killed. On top of that I really don't want this mission done because it means we're closer to finding Roland and the faster we find Roland then the closer you are to leaving and doing your own thing. It's just all really stressful and hard to deal with. A girl like me should be in high school and finishing her Junior year and have a scholarship from the science fair then going to college and having a nice stable family. But instead I'm stuck here on Pandora where I have to kill people to survive or I'll die and it's so hard knowing that you're going to leave and I want you to do your own quest. Find this other person like you. But I also want you to stay and just help us beat Jack, I just don't know what to do." She held back tears. She didn't look at Maddox she just looked at the ground as she hugged her knees. Her sadness and anger burned inside her so much, that she even took off her cybernetic arm and threw it. She didn't watch to see where it landed and she didn't really care either. Maddox looked over at the one armed 16 year old girl. She was fighting back tears. Her life had took a twisted direction and she wasn't prepared for any of it.

Maddox simply walked over to her side and pulled her into a hug. She wrapped her one arm around him and buried her head in his neck. She began to softly cry. Maddox rubbed her back up and down. He didn't say a word and knew he didn't need to. "Maddox… I think right now is a good time to tell you. I think. Maddox, I like you. It's fine if you don't feel the same way about me. I just felt like I should tell you now because I don't know when else I'd get the chance."

Maddox smiled and just hugged her tighter. "Well, I like you too Gaige."

Gaige pulled away slightly to look up at him. "You do?"

"Yes."

"How could you? I only have one arm because I was stupid and made a cybernetic one. I'm just a one armed idiot."

Maddox looked up and saw her cybernetic arm on the ground a few feet away. He used his power to cause it to float toward him. "Well, you may only have one arm." He grabbed the cyber arm. "But that doesn't mean that this one still isn't part of who you are." He reattached her arm.

She looked at the arm, then at her flesh arm, then back at her cyber arm. She looked back at Maddox and stared into his hazel eyes. She wrapped both of her arms back around him and leaned up against him. "Thank you… for everything."

"Thank you too."

"So… are we uh thing now?"

"Only if you want."

"Well… I do."

"Then we are."

"You're my first boyfriend. It's funny. I didn't think my first boyfriend would be someone who didn't know how to reload a gun."

Maddox laughed. "Wow. Ok. I didn't think my first girlfriend would have a pet robot."

"I'm your first? I thought you dated someone before me."

"Nope. She never knew how I felt about her. I don't even know how she felt about me."

"Hmm. Well… I don't know what to say to that."

"You don't need to. Besides we should probably catch up with the rest of them."

"Yeah, of course." The two got up and ran to meet up with the rest. Finally catching up as a battle had ended and one of Axton's turrets shut down. A flash of purple appeared and a woman with tattoos like Maya appeared from the purple. She had yellow eyes, very pale skin, and red hair.

"Could you fetch me another eridium chunk?" She asked no one in particular. Maya handed her a chunk. "Yea, that's the stuff."

"Did we miss something?" Maddox asked for him and Gaige.

"Yea, turns out the Firehawk is actually Lilith, an old partner of Roland." Axton pointed out.

"'Sup. Who are you two?"

"I'm Gaige, this is Maddox."

"Cool. Now let's go and save my boyfriend… well… ex boyfriend. Lemme go ahead and teleport you all to Sanctuary."

"She can teleport? I can't even do that." Maddox smiled.

They all got enveloped in a purple energy and in a flash they teleported… to a ledge not far from where they just were.

"Oh well so much for that. Uh I'll meet you in Sanctuary." Lilith said slightly embarrassed that her teleportation has failed.

The seven of them kept walking and found a chest. But like normal waited until Sanctuary to figure out the loot.

They eventually got back and sorted everything out.

Axton got a Grenadier and Tactician class. However kept his Veteran class mod. He also got a Weakened Homing MIRV grenade mod and replaced his old one.

Maya had found a Homing Incendiary Effect Grenade But got rid of it. She also got an Electronic Butt Beeter but kept her Negotiator. She replaced her Rifle with a Electronic Minigun and kept her Fox class mod.

Salvador kept his Longrider and Electronic Homing Effect Grenade.

Zero kept both of his pistols and kept his grenade which was the same as Salvador's

Krieg had ended up keeping his Pounder.

Gaige kept her Weakened Animosity and her Electronic Vexation. Gaige also kept her Sticky Homing Standard Grenade

Maddox had decided to keep his Incendiary Provocateur and kept his Optical Zoom.

 **So now you have it. Gaige and Maddox are officially dating. Obviously the others don't know yet but I'm not concerned if they know or not right now. Maybe they should know later but right now I'm keeping it low. Anyways time for the Inventory Update.**

 **Inventory Update:**

 **Axton**

 **Pooshka- Vladof Sniper**

 **Competition- Hyperion Sniper**

 **Incendiary Aegis- Maliwan Pistol**

 **Adaptive Shield- Anshin**

 **Weakened Homing MIRV Grenade- Torgue**

 **Veteran Class Mod- Faster reload and larger magazine**

 **Maya**

 **Electronic Spread- Tediore Launcher**

 **Negotiator- Dahl Pistol**

 **Electronic Minigun- Dahl AR**

 **Standard Shield- Tediore**

 **Rubberized MIRV- Torgue**

 **Fox Class Mod- higher burn chance and damage**

 **Salvador**

 **Longrider- Jakob's Shotgun**

 **Gatling Gun- Jakon's AR**

 **Electronic Prowler- Maliwan Launcher**

 **Standard Shield- Tediore**

 **Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**

 **Beast Class Mod- more health and faster reload**

 **Zero**

 **Sniper- Dahl Sniper**

 **Incendiary Fighter- Vladof Pistol**

 **Electronic Troublemaker- Vladof Pistol**

 **Nova Shield- Torgue**

 **Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**

 **Gaige**

 **Rifle- Valdof AR**

 **Electronic Vexation- Maliwan SMG**

 **Weakened Animosity- Maliwan Pistol**

 **Booster Shield- Dahl**

 **Sticky Homing Standard Grenade- Tediore**

 **Catalyst Class Mod- more team elemental damage**

 **Krieg**

 **Pounder- Torgue Shotgun**

 **Incendiary Launcher- Bandit Launcher**

 **Lance- Torgue AR**

 **Acidic Nova Shield- Maliwan**

 **Electronic Homing Bettie Grenade- Dahl**

 **Maddox**

 **Boom- Torgue Launcher**

 **Callipeen- Jakobs Sniper**

 **Incendiary Provocateur- Maliwan SMG**

 **Acidic Spike Shield- Maliwan**

 **Incendiary Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**

 **Optical Zoomer Class Mod- can see further with all weapons**


	12. Chapter 12

**Hello, I'm glad I was able to get this out. I've put a time into my busy schedule to where I work on this story. So hopefully that will get the story going instead of sitting here and being too lazy to do anything. Makes it so much easier to do this now that has an app to do everything on. Anyways this chapter was pretty easy, most of it was actually looking into Maddox's past and connecting some confusing details... and probably adding more but anyways. A lot of this story was copy and pasted from my own original story that isn't out anywhere. (It's literally just sitting in a google doc waiting for me to do something with it.) That story is Maddox's real cannon story. He doesn't actually come to Pandora in that and there's more to that which will be revealed later as the story progresses. Anyways have fun and get more confused possibly.**

Chapter 12: Chilling I Guess…

"Well, we don't know where Roland is at. We know he's with bloodshots but we don't know where their stronghold is." Lilith admitted.

"Wait… so you've attacked the Bloodshots a lot, but don't know where their camp is?" Axton questioned a little bit irritated.

"I know where some of their camps are, just not where they're keeping Roland."

"So why don't we just attack the camps until we find Roland."

"Because he would be in the most guarded one and we don't know where that one is."

"So interrogate them."

"No offense but unless you're like Maddox and able to look at their memories, all you're going to get is about someone stealing someone's shotty and a meat bicycle." Maya pointed out.

"Ok, but I am Maddox and I can do that so…" Maddox deadpanned.

"No!" Gaige yelled unexpectedly. "Even the bandits don't deserve your method of interrogation."

"I can't control how that goes. It's their fault they're resisting me. If they would let me in, then they'd have no burns… or frozen bits."

"Anyways, just wait. For now track down a Hyperion spy that might know I'm alive." Lilith told them.

"Ugh fine. I need to blow off some steam. I'll do that. The rest of you can just chill I guess." Axton said as he left the building.

"I'm going to Moxxi's." Salvador excused himself.

"Hey Lilith, can you help me with my siren powers?" Maya asked the other siren.

"Sure, lets just head someplace where we can blow things up."

It was now just Krieg, Zero, Gaige, and Maddox. "So what do you guys want to do?" Gaige asked them.

"The city isn't safe/I shall keep watch/Find me on the roof." Zero said as he nimbly climbed to the rooftops.

"Krieg?" Maddox asked the not so sane man.

"PROTECT PRETTY LADY! WATCH THE PURPLE MAGIC!" Krieg chases after Maya.

Maddox and Gaige sat in silence. Neither expecting to be in this situation. "Well I gotta go and do some, alien weird crystal things." Maddox joked as he got up.

Gaige grabbed his arm and pulled him back on the couch. "I'm not stupid."

"I didn't say you were."

"So… I'm a little confused how does your interrogation work?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like you said it would be different if they didn't resist."

"Oh… yeah. When I interrogate I'm literally entering their minds. It's not stoppable as far as I know. But if someone resists my prodding they start… being tortured with my entrance. Eventually it kills them. But if they let me in, let me see everything. They would be completely fine. At least I think."

"Oh…"

"Why?"

"I don't know… maybe you could. I don't know."

"Don't know what?"

"I don't know. I just, I want to tell you things. Like how my relationship was with my father. My whole life story I guess. I just, I don't know."

"Hmm… well I would like to tell you about my past. What I've been through, I just don't like to talk about it."

"Wait I have a theory. You can look into someone's mind and memories. Have you ever let someone into yours?"

"No, I never really tried."

"You want to try it?"

"Yea…"

Gaige put her hand on his forehead and waited. But nothing happened. "Your hand is cold." Maddox pointed out.

"Shut up. They're always cold."

"Here let me try something." Maddox moved her hand. He cupped his hand on her cheek and Gaige saw his eyes slowly glow red. However, she couldn't feel any difference.

Maddox knew how to press inward. But he didn't know how to draw someone inward. He wished he could see if his eyes were glowing or not because that would clue in that something was happening. He suddenly felt Gaige's flesh hand grasp onto his hand which wasn't doing anything. Maddox could feel himself push something out, but it wasn't his conscious. He decided to push it more.

Gaige felt something entering her mind. But she trusted that Maddox wasn't digging into her memories. Soon her vision faded to black. Then bright colors filled her eyes as she realized she was watching from Maddox's eyes.

"Alright here we are" Maddox said as he landed dropping off Jacob and Tanner. The reactor was very big. Bigger than Maddox expected it to be. "Ok, I'm going inside this thing, see if I can shut it down from the inside. Tanner use your ability to stall the explosion from the outside. Jacob if I am unable to shut this down. Raise the ground to minimize the damage. Don't wait for me. If you wait, then it may take out the whole city. I'm going in" Maddox said.

Walking around and finding a small vent, he particalized himself to shift through the vent. Making it through to the inside he reformed himself. "Dang," he said to himself looking at the inside. The inside was dark and very damaged. Falling pipes were everywhere, loose electrical cords sparked, the ceiling basically collapsed. This was no reactor meltdown. There was no way two thieves managed to do all this damage.

Making his way to the control center, he found the controls were smashed. All but the security camera controls. He turned to them finding the last recorded thing before this place had a wreck. Turning it on, he saw Jacob, and Tanner. They were destroying the whole place. Then Rodgers came into view directly in front of the camera.

"Hello, Maddox. I know that you're watching this, you're starting to become a nosy thorn in my side. I knew that you would be the one to risk your life, by going inside this reactor. It's too bad, but let me tell you something. All those people you killed. They were some of the world's best crime fighters, and you killed so many of them. Russia is in anarchy, because of you. The U.S. government is falling apart because of you. The city of Wichita, where you grew up. Has become the most dangerous place on the planet. Anika, I wonder how she is surviving in that place." That hit a nerve in Maddox.

"Also Maddox, it's impossible to stop this from exploding. You are in the heart of the explosion. Your chances of survival are minimal. Rodgers out."

Maddox smashed the security camera controls. Feeling the massive amounts of energy coursing through the ground. He surrounded the whole reactor in a hard light wall as the explosion erupted.

Quickly all Gaige saw was a blur as Maddox showed her more.

Maddox followed the tracker which led him right to the organization's hanger. Maddox entered the elevator. It began to take him down. Leaving the car he ran to Ivan's training room.

Finding a bloodied body and fearing the worse. It was Ivan's and he was dead.

"Ivan! No no no, Ivan please wake up, you must be alive." tears began to stream down his face. Next to him was a small tablet. Maddox picked it up and a video began playing.

"Hey Maddox, if you're watching this it means I'm dead." Ivan said from the video. "I'm sending T.O.R.I to get you right now, but obviously she wasn't fast enough. Since now you're here and watching this it means she found you. The organization doesn't know that you live and have no idea that I'm responsible for that. They know that I'm not on their side. Any minute now they will charge into this room and kill me. But I want you to fulfill my dying wish. But before I tell you those, I'm giving you ownership of T.O.R.I. Use her to fulfill my dying wishes. Tell my family that I love them and protect them for me. But I also want you to finish what I started. Take down this organization and kill everyone that gets in your way. I know it may mean killing Thallia, Greer or any other person you've become friends with. Maybe they'll side with you. But please destroy the organization and make sure there is nothing left. Thank you, you.. you were like a son to me.

"COMMANDER MILLER, OPEN UP THE DOOR!" someone said on the other side knocking on it.

"Ivan out." with that the video cut off.

Maddox stood up, clenching his fists and teeth. His eyes began glowing red, anger leaked out of his persona. The door opened and guards with weapons even some super humans came in to attack him. Maddox's chest opened up, revealing the red crystal with the four black ones circling around it. They began to rapidly circle around it. Going faster and faster. Until the energy build up was so much that a giant red laser beam shot through the air. The laser completely disintegrating whoever it touched. Soldier and superhuman, all killed and turned to ash.

Gaige could feel herself start to cry, experiencing what Maddox had gone through.

"Uoy tsum og tou dna yortesd eht eno ew llac Noitalihinna, tub uoy tsum retsam siht rewop ew era gnivig uoy. Rof fi uoy t'nod ruoy eritne tenalp dna eht elohw esrevinu lliw llaf erofeb mih, eh sah ydaerla deyortsed ym srotaerc, uoy era eht ylno eno taht nac pots mih." The voice said in this… this language she never even heard of.

She felt herself pulled back to reality. Coming face to face with hazel eyes. Maddox's hand left her forehead. Gaige grabbed the hand just like his other one. She knew tears streamed down her face.

"What did you see?"

Gaige hesitated, trying to sum up what she saw. "The nuclear reactor, Ivan Miller's death."

"Was that all?"

"No, there was this last bit where some dude was talking in a weird language."

"Oh you mean Renuclonium?"

"Uhh, yea I guess. You know what it is?"

"Yea, I immediately spoke it and understood when I became a Renuclonium."

"So that's what you are?"

"Sort of… I'm human or was human that was bonded with a alien crystal of Renuclonium origins. It's kind of a long story. They're extinct much like your Eridian people. So what all in the language did you hear?"

"I don't know. The only thing that stands out is Noitalihinna."

Maddox froze as he heard that word.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Noitalihinna, it's the name of the other me."

"What's wrong with that."

"Well, Noitalihinna is a destroyer. He's destroyed thousands of worlds and made extinct thousands of species. Including his own. He is full Renuclonium and is bonded with a crystal. He made the Renuclonium's extinct. It wouldn't surprise me if he's the reason behind the Eridians extinction as well."

"Stronger than Eridians… are you stronger than them?"

"I don't know, Noitalihinna is full Renuclonium and I'm just a human bonded with a crystal. Noitalihinna may be significantly more powerful than me. But I don't know much more about Noitalihinna. Chances are that guardians locked him in a vault, but I don't know for sure and I don't even know if he's here anymore. He may have killed the Eridians and then moved onto the next world before we discovered Pandora. But it's quite unusual that there is still animal life on Pandora. As savage as the animals are anyways. Noitalihinna would destroy the world. Not just kill the people on it. That's why I think he's still here. In a dormant state."

"If he's this bad, why are you trying to wake him?"

"I'm not trying to wake him. I'm trying to find him so I can kill him while he's dormant."

"I see. Well just in case when we defeat Handsome Jack and you're still trying to find him. I would like to help."

"And I'd be happy to let you tag along."

"Axton has returned/Looks quite happy/A mission success." Zero spoke startling the other two.

The rest of the team came back from whatever they were doing seeing he was back with some loot.

Axton spilled out all of the loot onto the floor.

"Since I did the mission I choose who gets what." Axton said proudly.

"I get the Absorbing Shield, this Revolver, and this Hand Cannon." He only kept the Absorbing Shield.

"Maya you can have this Weakened TMP, Wheelgun, and Injector." She didn't keep any of them.

"Sal, buddy you can have… this handful of cash."

Salvador just stared up at Axton. Clearly not happy with his 'earnings.'

"Anyways… Zero you take the Acidic Power Shot, Acidic Spike Shield, and Weakened Peacemaker." He also got rid of it all.

"Krieg, just take the Weakened Handgun, Electronic Aegis, and Wheelgun." He sold them.

"Gaige gets the Iron, Electronic Synergy, and Electronic Aegis." She also sold them.

"Maddox, you can have this Rubberized Bettie." He threw it out.

 **Alright there you have it. I'm going to use this ending part here to put some more background that wasn't explained very well. Commander Ivan Miller was Maddox's trainer, they had a pretty rough relationship up until when Maddox became a rogue agent of the organization he worked for. Ivan was a trainer of the organization and wanted to bring it down from the inside. (Obviously he was caught)**

 **Rodger is the head of the organization. He's the leader. Nothing much else on him.**

 **Tanner and Jacob are two loyal agents of the Organization they were helping to trap Maddox in the Nuclear Reactor.**

 **Thallia and Greer are mentioned briefly and are Maddox's teammates and his actual trusted friends.**

 **Whether or not these characters will actually appear in this story is up in the air at the moment.**

 **Anyways that's all. Time for the inventory update.**

Inventory Update:

Axton

Pooshka- Vladof Sniper

Competition- Hyperion Sniper

Incendiary Aegis- Maliwan Pisto

Absorbing Shield- Vladof

Weakened Homing MIRV Grenade- Torgue

Veteran Class Mod- Faster reload and larger magazine

Maya

Electronic Spread- Tediore Launcher

Negotiator- Dahl Pistol

Electronic Minigun- Dahl AR

Standard Shield- Tediore

Rubberized MIRV- Torgue

Fox Class Mod- higher burn chance and damage

Salvador

Longrider- Jakob's Shotgun

Gatling Gun- Jakon's AR

Electronic Prowler- Maliwan Launcher

Standard Shield- Tediore

Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof

Beast Class Mod- more health and faster reload

Zero

Sniper- Dahl Sniper

Incendiary Fighter- Vladof Pistol

Electronic Troublemaker- Vladof Pistol

Nova Shield- Torgue

Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof

Gaige

Rifle- Valdof AR

Electronic Vexation- Maliwan SMG

Weakened Animosity- Maliwan Pistol

Booster Shield- Dahl

Sticky Homing Standard Grenade- Tediore

Catalyst Class Mod- more team elemental damage

Krieg

Pounder- Torgue Shotgun

Incendiary Launcher- Bandit Launcher

Lance - Torgue AR

Acidic Nova Shield- Maliwan

Electronic Homing Bettie Grenade- Dahl

Maddox

Boom- Torgue Launcher

Callipeen- Jakobs Sniper

Incendiary Provocateur- Maliwan SMG

Acidic Spike Shield- Maliwan

Incendiary Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof

Optical Zoomer Class Mod- can see further with all snipers


	13. Chapter 13

**Hey readers I'm here with another chapter. This chapter is just catching up on the available side missions so there isn't a lot of plot developing themes here. Only progress they make on the storyline mission is meeting Ellie as the title suggests and getting the Technical Vehicle. So read on.**

Chapter 13: Cult Followings and Ellie

"Alright Axton, we have the location of the bandit fort." Lilith told him.

"Good let's go an-" He started.

"But you need a certain vehicle to get in."

"Oh…"

"Scooter said that his sister lives in the Dust and she can make one." Gaige told them all having already talked with the mechanic.

"Ok good. But we probably don't need everyone to go and get the vehicle specs for the Catch-A-Ride. So we'll split up. Half of us will go and get the vehicle, the other half is going to help me monitor my bandit worshipers." Lilith asked, more worried about her cult than a vehicle.

"Me, Maya, Zero, and Maddox will take care of your cult. The rest will get the vehicle specs." Axton suggested.

"Sounds good to me." Lilith agreed.

The group split and went their separate ways, giving each other good lucks. Gaige, Salvador, and Krieg all traveled to the Dust while the rest went back to Frostburn Canyon.

"I am Incinerator Clayton. And you... I witnessed you enter the lair of the Firehawk, and return unharmed. If you truly wish to serve our mother, you must pass a test: use a fire weapon to send my brothers to the Eternal Flame! Then collect their ashes, and return them to me." He said telling them what to do.

"They want us to burn them? I'm glad I'm not part of any cult." Maddox said under his breath.

"What was that?" Clayton questioned him

"N-nothing."

"I don't have a flame weapon guys." Maya informed them as they headed towards the camp.

"That's ok, the rest of us do have one." Maddox reassures her.

They four very easily killed the bandits and burnt them to ashes. Then gave the ashes to Clayton.

"Now that you are officially part of the Children of the Firehawk. There is a false one. You are to show my brothers that our mother will not be mocked by such false idols."

Gaige, Sal, and Krieg all walked up to a large lady laughing as she crushed a bandit in his vehicle.

"Oh heeyyy y'all. The names' Ellie, Scooter told me he sent ya."

"Uh… hi we need a vehicle, specifically one that the bandits use."

"Oh you mean a Bandit Technical! Yes I have one of those… oh I'm sorry I'm afraid I don't have one as I just crushed the last one I had. But if y'all run around and destroy other technicals and grab 'em parts then I can make one for ya."

So the three drove in their smaller vehicle and collected parts for Ellie.

"You got the parts? Good. Now just set 'em over here. It's gonna take me awhile to get the Technical built for ya. But my friend outside has something you can do for him while you wait."

"I'll go." Sal volunteered. He came back just a few minutes later. "Ok, we need to get up into the buzzard camp up there and… break some stuff or something."

"O...k"

"But eh, how do we get up there?" Sal asked pointing to the buzzard camp that had to be flown into.

"BIG ROCK MAKE BICYCLE FLY!" Krieg shouted.

"What?" Sal asked.

"No, I see what's he's saying. We can use that large rock as a ramp to get into the camp."

"Are you loco?!? I'm not doing that."

"Then me and Krieg will."

"You know, when I'm fighting a false idol. I don't expect it to be a giant spider that's literally made of fire!" Maddox shouted as he dodged a molten rock.

"Yea… I don't really understand why these bandits are considered heretics for worshipping an actual monster." Axton shouted back as he dodged a psycho.

"Less talk, more kill!" Maya shouted at them as she phase locked a smaller spiderant.

Maddox switched to his Boom and fired a rocket at Scorch. Scorch caught it and threw it back, making a roar as it made impact with Maddox. Maddox was throw into an ice wall and fell to the cold ground. He slowly got up on all fours.

"You alright Maddox?" Axton asked over the coms.

"Yea, just had the wind knocked out of me." He responded over the coms, then saying to himself, "If I still had organs, I'd be bleeding internally."

He then took out his Callipeen, using his optical zoom to gain more range from his sniper. Maddox waited patiently. Zero, Maya, and Axton were too busy with its minions to fight Scorch. So it was all on him. Maddox aimed at the butt, waiting for the thorax to come into view. However, his chance refused to come.

Maddox looked away from his sniper to the great wall of ice that had them surrounded. He knew he had to ricochet a bullet into the spider, but the ice had to be strong enough to redirect the bullet instead of being shattered. Aiming at a spot on the wall, Maddox took the shot. Maddox waited and waited, but it seemed that nothing would happen. Suddenly, Scorch let out a shriek as its thorax exploded. Scorch was dead.

The minions began to fall back. Zero turned towards Maddox as Maddox approached them. "What a shot/accuracy in its true form/any of your powers?"

"No, I didn't use any of it."

"Wait that was all skill?" Axton asked.

"Yea, while I was being trained there was a portion of training that required me to do things without using my power. It also may have been some luck too."

Gaige took cover as a Buzzard launched a volley at her. They had already acquired the volleyballs and gasoline. Now they needed to set the nets on fire. Krieg was the only one of them that had an Incendiary weapon. Sal wasn't with them but he didn't have one either.

Gaige targeted one of the Buzzard's engines with her Weakened Animosity until she covered the whole thing in a thick purple goop. She switched to her Rifle and and shot the engine. The Buzzard lost control as its engine exploded and was sent spiraling down and crashing.

Using this as her chance she doused a net in gasoline. "Krieg now!" Krieg fired his incendiary launcher and set the net on fire. Gaige dodged other fire a doused the second one. "Krieg!" Once again Krieg set the net on fire.

"They destroyed our volleyball nets, get em!" A shirtless man said. Two other shirtless men came out to kill them. They relentlessly fired on Gaige as she was out in the open. Gaige ran to cover as her shield gave out and popped out a booster to recover some of her shield. However, she was unable to grab it and a bullet hit her in the leg.

Gaige screamed in pain and fell down. Clutching her left leg that was bleeding profusely. She took out her Weakened Animosity and killed on of the shirtless men. She got up and hobbled to behind cover and put her gun down as she bit back her tears. Thankfully the wound was just a normal bullet, not elemental or explosive. She summoned Death Trap and he flew around the corner towards the battle.

Krieg brought out his buzz axe and went on a rampage against the bandits where it seemed like an endless amount. Eventually, Krieg and death trap killed all of them. Krieg looked at the gore before him. "NO GUTS NO GLORY!" He screamed. Krieg went and found Gaige holding her leg. Surprisingly, he gently picked her up and they returned to Ellie's garage.

"Why do we have go all the way out here to light this guy on fire? Can we just set him on fire back in Frostburn?" Axton complained about being back at the southern shelf. Fighting more enemies that had populated the bandit fort while they were gone.

"I have no idea why we gotta do this." Maya joined in on the complaining.

Maddox killed a psycho as he looked up to see the long way up that they had to go. "Ugh…"

They fought through the bandit hoards easily killing them. Finally making it back up to the frozen ship. They lit the psycho on fire and it shouted something about feeling the mothers sweet embrace. Until his corpse became scorched.

"Let's go back to Clayton…"

"Oh dear what happened?!" Ellie asked as Krieg brought in an injured Gaige.

"I got shot."

"Here let me help, go and put her down over here." She cleared the table of her tools.

Krieg set her down on the table. When Sal came in. "Ah amigo are you ok?"

"Yea… I'll be alright."

"Did you get the job done at least?"

"Yea. The nets are on fire."

Ellie wrapped Gaiges leg up. "I'm not a medical professional. Working on a living thing is much more different than a vehicle. When y'all get back to Sanctuary, I recommend y'all find an actual doctor."

"Now I'm not done with the Technical yet but you two can go and destroy more of those technicals and get me those statues of me on 'em."

Sal and Krieg nodded as they went out to get the statues for Ellie. They easily took out the technicals and put the statues around the garage. "Alright y'all Technical is done. Go on and head back home. Take care of Gaige."

They all lit the effigies on fire and went ahead and pulled the lever. The fire emerged from the pit. "My brothers, we have caught these heretics from the wretched city of Sanctuary. Today we will sacrifice them to our great mother. Let the Enkindling, begin!"

The cultists around them shouted and cheared. Maddox looked up to see the captives were indeed from Sanctuary.

Lilith appeared out of nowhere on top of the cage. "This is your goddess and she is very disappointed. Vault Hunters, I'm going to return them to Sanctuary, in the meantime. Kill these heathens."

"Brothers, we have been lied to. Attack the vault hunters."

Furies of bullets came from every direction. As the group all spread out in order to survive the onslaught. Yet again Maddox's shield gave out just before he got into cover. A psycho ran over to his position and tried to hit him with the buzz axe. Maddox grabbed its arm and punched him hard enough for the psycho to hit the ground. Maddox still had the arm and broke it before using the dropped buzz axe to kill the psycho. He picked the buzz axe and threw it at a nomad. Scoring a direct hit in the stomach. Maddox quickly finished him off.

They continued to fight it out. Eventually Clayton was killed. Having fallen into his own sacrificial pit. They stated to head back to Sanctuary hoping the others missions had gone more smoothly.

Gaige laid on the bed in Dr. Zed's clinic. She was currently under anesthesia for the surgery as Zed looked for the bullet that entered her leg. Finally finding the dangerous piece of metal and pulling it out. He then began to patch up her leg. Knowing it would be a while before she would regain consciousness. Zed walked out and headed to the headquarters.

"It was pretty bad. But she'll be alright." Zed told Sal and Krieg failing to notice that the other four had returned.

"Who?" Maddox asked.

"Uhhh Gaige, she uh. Well she was shot." Sal admitted.

Maddox sprinted past them. "She's on anesthesia she's not going to be up for a while. "Zed shouted at him but it fell on deaf ears.

Maddox ran into the medical clinic and indeed Gaige was on the table with a wrapping around her left leg. The bullet obviously hit her calf. She was unconscious and looked peaceful. Maddox walked up to the red head before him. Looking at the torn black and whites she was wearing so Zed could get to the thing that could have ended her life. Making Maddox lose yet another person he really cared about. Her cybernetic arm was removed and on the shelf for whatever medical reason that it was removed.

Maddox walked over and picked up the complex design. He knew that Gaige had made this arm for her. Inside this arm was the module that summoned DT. Maddox wasn't quite sure how DT was actually summoned, he knew she would raise an open hand then bring it down in a closed fist. But other than that head no clue, maybe part of it came with her speech, a type of voice command. She would always say "DT" or "Death Trap" while her hand did its thing and DT would digistruct in front of her. He wanted to find out but would ask later.

He put the arm back on the shelf and looked at her missing arm. From the shoulder down there was nothing. Just a small little scarred stub. Maddox couldn't quite understand how the armed stayed on. "There are no screws, or scars on your arm for an incision. In fact when I put it arm back yesterday before it was like a simple clamp, maybe it was squeezing the stub to stay attached. Not painfully I hope, but just enough to stay attached through even through harshest beating." Maddox thought out loud.

He moved to the side of the bed and carefully sat near her head as to not disturb her leg. "You're a really good engineer. Sure I can turn myself into some weird thing that's about my size, or if I had my car I could create a towering robot, I can theoretically create a giant ship but I have no AI to manage all of the systems. But I can only do that because of my power. You… you don't need any power to do that. In fact you'd make the AI for a ship. You don't have a special ability like I do. You're just insanely smart. Something that people from where I'm from don't value very much. In fact if you're smart you're kinda laughed at. I know Anika was pretty smart, not smarter than you. but enough for people to look down on her." Maddox began to chuckle a little. "I'm talking to someone that can't even hear me. I guess that tells you just how important you are. To me at least." Maddox ran his fingers through her hair. "I don't know why, but of all places you could have gone to, to escape from Eden-5. You chose Pandora, and how lucky am I that not only you chose Pandora as your get away. But that you chose me, to be your partner." Maddox was sitting on the right side of her. So he grabbed her flesh hand. Interlocking their fingers. As he awaited for her to wake up.

"Well, do we wait on Maddox to get back to sort out the loot?" Sal asked.

"No, let him worry. We can sort it all out." Axton said.

They began to put out the loot in different piles. In Axton's pile was a Pointman Class Mod, Specialist Class Mod, Acidic Aegis, Tactician Class Mod, Grenadier Class Mod, Incendiary Rakeshell, Acidic Bratchny, Rubberized Incendiary Effect Grenade, Weakened Lobbed Singularity Grenade, Flame of the Firehawk, Shock Trooper Class Mod, Acidic Peacemaker, and The Afterburner Relic.

He kept the Pointman Class Mod, Acidic Peacemaker, The Afterburner, Flame of the Firehawk and Incendiary Rakeshell, he kept his Pooshka, and Weakened Homing MIRV Grenade.

Maya had found a Incendiary Zooka, Rifle, Electronic Handgun, Warder Class Mod, Lobbed Bettie Grenade, and Electronic Vanquisher.

She kept the Electronic Vanquisher, Lobbed Bettie Grenade, and Electronic Handgun, she kept her Electronic Spinigun, and Fox Class Mod.

Salvador received two War Dog Class Mods, a Acidic Punishment, Scarab, Electronic Renegade, Monk Class Mod, Titan Class Mod, and a Bushwack.

He kept the Acidic Punishment, and Electronic Renagade, he kept his Longrider, and Beast Class Mod.

Zero sorted through his pile that had a Incendiary Kindle, Incendiary Spike Shield, Rokets, Spinigun, Explosive Spike Shield, Lobbed Incendiary Effect Grenade, Professional Class Mod, Electronic Sticky Longbow Transfusion Grenade, Scarab, and Electronic Aegis.

He kept the Incendiary Kindle, Explosive Spike Shield, Electronic Sticky Longbow Transfusion Grenade, and Professional Class Mod, he kept his Incendiary Fighter.

Krieg found a Lobbed Acidic Effect Grenade, Sticky Homing Bettie Grenade, Torch Class Mod, Hulk, Electronic Pistal, Acidic Longbow Bettie, Reaper Class Mod, Barbarian Class Mod, Rod, Incendiary Blaster, and an Incendiary Room Clener.

He kept the Lobbed Acidic Effect Grenade, Torch Class Mod, Hulk, and Incendiary Blaster.

 **That's it. Gaige was the first injury to the group unless you count Maddox passion out. I know that Gaige and Maddox haven't gone through their stuff yet. They will be going through that near the beginning of the next chapter. However, the inventory update will include what they get anyway. You will see what it is that they kept by the "@" on the end of it.**

Inventory Update:

Axton

Pooshka- Vladof Sniper

Incendiary Rakeshell- Sniper

Acidic Peacemaker- Pistol

Flame of the Firehawk Shield- Maliwan Legendary (Constant Fire Nova when completely depleted)

Weakened Homing MIRV Grenade- Torgue

Pointman Class Mod- Faster health regeneration and more health.

The Afterburner Relic- longer boost and faster recharge time.

Maya

Electronic Vanquisher- Vladof Launcher

Electronic Handgun- Tediore Pistol

Electronic Minigun- Dahl AR

Standard Shield- Tediore

Lobbed Bettie Grenade- Dahl

Fox Class Mod- higher burn chance and damage

Salvador

Longrider- Jakob's Shotgun

Electronic Renegade- Vladof AR

Acidic Punishment- Maliwan Launcher

Standard Shield- Tediore

Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof

Beast Class Mod- more health and faster reload

Zero

Sniper- Dahl Sniper

Incendiary Fighter- Vladof Pistol

Incendiary Kindle- Tediore SMG

Explosive Spike Shield- Torgue

Electronic Sticky Longbow Transfusion Grenade Effect- Maliwan

Professional- faster reload speed and more shield capacity.

Gaige

Incendiary Blaster-Dahl AR@

Acidic Smig- Bandit SMG@

Longarm- Jakobs Pistol@

Booster Shield- Dahl

Sticky Homing Standard Grenade- Tediore

Catalyst Class Mod- more team elemental damage

Krieg

Hulk- Torgue Shotgun

Incendiary Launcher- Bandit Launcher

Incendiary Blaster - Vladof AR

Acidic Nova Shield- Maliwan

Lobbed Acidic Effect Grenade- Vladod

Torch Class Mod- more burn damage

Maddox

Blaaa- Torgue Launcher@

Callipeen- Jakobs Sniper

Incendiary Provocateur- Maliwan SMG

Acidic Spike Shield- Maliwan

Incendiary Longbow MIRV Grenade- Vladof@

Slicer Class Mod- plasma blades consume less energy@


	14. Chapter 14

**Long time no see again. Sorry, my schedule gets crowded around this time of year. You know track and the final drill meet of the season. Plus I got pretty sick and a lot of other stuff. But if you have been paying attention to the story. (I blank out when I'm reading and read pages without even realizing I'm reading so I don't have any memory of what happened.) This is the chapter where they rescue Roland and when they rescue him Maddox departs. Well that's in this chapter. So maybe it's tear jerking, maybe it's not at all. I don't think I'm good at super emotional scenes.**

Chapter 14: A Dang Fine Rescue

Gaige had slowly woken her eyes. She looked around to figure where she was at and soon remembered what happened. She looked at her wrapped up leg and winced when she tried to move it. Finally, her brain began to register that her cybernetic arm was removed, and her flesh arm… well it was taken captive by a sleeping Maddox.

He was sitting on a chair near the side of the bed. Using the bed as like a pillow as his hand held hers. Gaige smiled slightly blushing and wondered how long he had been there. But did he actually sleep? Maybe it was a natural recovery to his abilities. Just extremely slow, kinda giving him a human aspect. Part of her wanted to keep letting him sleep like that. But knowing that things needed to get done she lightly squeezed his hand.

Maddox woke up. He was a very light sleeper, then again everyone on Pandora had to be to survive. But his past 3 years may have had that on him long before Pandora. "Morning sleepyhead." Gaige greeted sweetly.

Maddox smiled before looking to her leg. "How is it?"

"Hurts to move it. I guess that means I'll be here while you're rescuing Roland." Her tone began to sadden. "Then you'll leave. I didn't know that our last mission together would be finding Lilith."

"Yea… I didn't either. I wish it wasn't but I need to do my own thing. No offense but stopping Noitalihinna before he can be awakened is a more important than…"

"...Stopping Jack. Yea I completely agree with you on that. We don't really know what he's doing anyway, just that he wants to kill us. I would join you but… I have this really bad feeling that what Jack is doing will need my resistance. Like he's doing something more than just trying to kill us."

"I know I understand. Alright it's time for me to go. See you around I guess." Maddox let go of her hand and began to leave.

"Wait!" She grabbed his wrist just before he got out of her reach. "Promise me you'll come back to see me after you get back with Roland."

"I promise." Maddox hugged her tightly.

"Be safe." Gaige hugged back.

"I will." Maddox pulled away and headed towards the headquarters.

Gaige immediately began brainstorming ways to keep him around after Roland was rescued.

Maddox knew he could heal her leg. But she was already getting treatment and he didn't want to attract the armored figure. Maddox began to realize that there was no way this armored figure was Noitalihinna. He would have killed them and destroyed the world by now. But this armored figure he wanted to keep off everyone's back. Only using his ability when absolutely necessary.

Maddox walked into the headquarters. "Oh good you're here. We're about to head out. Quickly go through the loot we found and then we gotta go. Hyperion is trying to buy Roland from the Bloodshots." Maya warned him.

Maddox quickly sorted through his pile. Finding a Blaaa, Slicer Class Mod, two Pretty Colorer Class Mods, Electronic Homing Transfusion Grenade, Silent Man Class Mod, Incendiary Back Burner, Incendiary Longbow MIRV, and Acid Addict Class Mod.

Maddox kept the Blaaa, Slicer Class Mod, and Incendiary Longbow MIRV, he kept his Incendiary Provocateur.

"I'm ready."

"Alright let's go." Axton commanded.

Dr. Zed came into the clinic. "Alright how's it doing?"

"It hurts to move it."

"It's still going to be really sore from your surgery and well getting shot. I'd say you are all a lucky bunch none of you came in with a wound until you did. Maybe Maddox is taking all of the fire." He joked.

"Yeah I guess he is." She remembered when his arm got shot up.

"Alright when you say it hurts to move is it like really bad?" He began to unwrap the bandage.

"I mean it hurts enough to cause me to wince. But not enough that it's unbearable once I get used to it."

"Well it looks likes it's healing well enough. We can try to get you moving with crutches." Zed disappeared around the curtain and brought out a pair of crutches. He wrapped her leg and helped her onto the crutches. She winced a little whenever she moved her leg.

She made it onto the crutches. Steadily, she began to move forward. Making it out of the clinic and moving back in, getting used to the crutches.

"I think they're good."

"Alright, well come back tomorrow morning."

"Ok" Gaige began to crutch her way towards headquarters. Finding her pile of things and sorting through them.

She found a Sweetheart Class Mod, two Prodigy Class Mods, a Longarm, two Jill of all Trades Class Mods, a Incendiary Blaster, Incendiary Thinking, Acidic Smig Bandit SMG.

She kept the Longarm, Incendiary Blaster, and Acidic Smig.

"It's a trick! Get em!" A Bandit shouted over the coms after the group had made it passed the spiked gate. The group was quickly swarmed with bandit reinforcements. Marauders, nomads and psychos coming from every direction.

Both Salvador's and Axton's shields went down immediately. Axton's shield began releasing constant fire novas. "Axton go run around while the shield is down and take out the enemies." Maya suggested.

Axton began to run around as his nova took out two of the five enemies. Maya took out her Electronic Vanquisher and fired at the Nomad Taskmaster killing him.

Salvador ran up to the midget boner and slammed him to the ground stomping on its small head.

Zero aimed at the Killer Marauder and shot him with his Sniper. This only took out its shield however.

Krieg took this moment and sliced the Marauder's throat.

Suddenly a very large nomad named Bad Maw jumped over the closed drawbridge. He had a large shield and three psycho midgets strapped to it. He immediately charged straight at Salvador who narrowly dodged out of the way.

While he was turned around, Maya began shooting at him with her Electronic Minigun. Axton also took this chance using his Acidic Peacemaker, but Maw turned around and block it with his shield striking a piece of rope that had midgets tied to it.

Maddox fired his Incendiary Provocateur hoping to burn off the rest of the rope but ended up killing one of the midgets. Zero ran up and sliced at him, Maw failed to block the sword as it made a deep cut on his free arm.

Salvador fired his shotgun catching Maw off guard. Somehow Maw was still alive. Krieg pulled out his buzz axe and threw it at Maw. Maw saw the fatal blade and moved his shield causing it to strike and kill one of the midgets.

Bad Maw knew he was pinned and needed to make a move. So he used his shotgun aiming at Maddox. Maddox took the full force of the shotgun and felt his shield give out. Maw was getting ready to shoot him again.

Maya however came to the rescue and tore off one of the ropes binding the last midget. However, the midget still struggled against the rope, and in retaliation Maw swung the shield at Maya, but he was too late.

Axton fired his Incendiary Rakeshell snapping the last rope off the shield releasing the very angry midget. The midget jumped on the head of Maw and began bashing its small hands into his eyes. Maw threw away his shield to get the midget off. The midget had crushed both of the eyes and continued to pound on him. Maw fell over defeated by his prisoner.

The midget looked up at its six heroes. Most shocked at what the tiny thing could do. Then the midget charged at them. "I NEED NEW MEAT PUPPET FRIENDS AND YOUR GOING TO BE MY-"

The midget was crushed into a blurry heap by Kriegs buzz axe. Krieg looked straight at Maya, "MY PECKS HAVE PECKS."

"Oh…" Maya reacted not quite sure how to react. "That's great honey."

"Honey?!?" Maddox asked surprised.

"Oh yeah, if you hadn't spent the night in the clinic you would have known that last night that they became a thing." Axton mocked him slightly.

"I didn't know Maya had a thing for Psychos."

"Trust me there are a lot of reasons." Maya stated.

"Quit talking/Roland in trouble/Must save him."

"He's not wrong." Axton said as he put the key into the hole and dropped the drawbridge down. They entered into the stronghold hearing Hyperion and Flanksteak (I think that's his name.) bargaining on Rolands cost through their coms. They fought through bandits with relative ease. Only a few problems with Awesome Nomads with Awesome Psychos. Eventually getting to a very big room with a vortex of probably death in the middle of it. They were easily killing the bandits in there until a bandit named Mad Mike came out of a garage door along with two awesome nomads and a seemingly endless wave of suicide psychos.

Immediately Aston's shield and Zero's shield went down from the barrage of bullet fire and rockets.

All six of them ducked behind cover trying to figure out what to do. They fought off suicide psychos while Mad Mike and his Nomads slowly made their way to them. They knew that they were running out of time.

"Ok, I… I have an idea. I don't think anyone will like it cause it takes quite the toll on me." Maddox offered.

"What is it?" Maya asked.

"Ok I can duplicate myself and can control each of my clones and myself. It's just with more clones the more information my 'brain' is receiving and well the more likely I am to well... crash. I'd also prefer if we don't get into the energy consumption too."

"No, we can't let you do that." Maya denied him.

"Sorry but I'm with Maddox on this one, unless you guys have any other ideas." Axton admitted as one of the nomads has came into view."

"What about Gaige, you know how…" Maya began.

"I know, but if I don't do anything then she'll be alone with all of us dead anyway."

Maya let out a heavy sigh knowing he was right. "Just do whatever it is you need to do."

Maddox's eyes began to glow red. Suddenly, another Maddox appeared, then another, then another. Soon there were ten of them. Simultaneously all ten of them ran towards Mike and his Nomads. A nomad swung his spiked shield at one of the clones and scored a hit. This caused that clone to hit the ground and turn to dust. While the nomad was open, another clone had a blade pop out of his wrist and shoved it through the nomads skull. That clone was crushed under the weight of the nomad and now only eight remained.

Mike fired his rocket launcher and blew up two of the clones. The rest charged for the last nomad. Again the nomad knocked one aside with his shield and as the second one came up, the nomad used his free hand to knock him to the ground and shot him. A third clone slide under him and deployed a dual blade and sliced up the nomads back killing him. The nomad again fell on top of the clone.

Now only three remained and Maddox was one of them. They all rushed at Mike, Mike swung and the clone had dodged, obviously now that Maddox was only controlling three entities meant he could easily focus more on the survival of the one in most immediate danger. The clone had slid under the arm and dragged a short blade across Mike's ankle. Mike bent over and in a fit of anger picked up the clone and threw him into the vortex below. The second clone made an attempt to tackle Mike into the vortex, however Mike moved and the clone plummeted down. The last one was Maddox. Mike rushed Maddox and knocked him to the ground with his rocket launcher. Maddox's eyes violently blinking red and Maddox could feel his vision fade. Mike put his foot on Maddox's chest. Throwing all of his weight on him. "You won't last two minutes." Mike mocked as he continued to put more pressure onto Maddox's chest.

Maddox could no longer feel his lower body. He quickly felt his arms become numb and out of energy as he focused all of it to keep his chest from caving in. Maddox knew that he was running out of energy fast. Suddenly, Maya fired at Mike. Mike stumbled off of his chest. Maddox took this opportunity and grabbed Mike's ankle. Feeling his energy return as he drained Mike of his own life force. Soon Maddox was standing above Mike who began to wither as his body rapidly aged without him. Maddox finally stopped draining him and looked at Mike.

Mike was too weak to move. Struggling to look up at Maddox. "Bury me… with my stuff." Mike struggled to say out, his voice barely a whisper and rasp.

"You fought well." Maddox told him as he pushed Mike into the vortex below.

The others walked towards Maddox, who simply stared where Mike had fell. "What did you do to him?" Axton asked.

"I… drained him of his own energy. Like a vampire and blood. I can siphon the life energy out of someone. It's something I avoid doing. I don't like doing it."

"Let's uh…. just move on." Maya said walking away.

"Agreed." Zero spoke.

They continued through the stronghold. Killing wave after wave after wave of bandits. They made it to where Roland was locked up. The wall behind Roland blew up and a loader came through to grab him. Roland easily killed the loader. As a another one came through he grabbed the core of the previous loader and threw it and killed it. Roland turned back towards his cell door and a blue constructor landed behind him. Laser beams grabbed Roland and put him in a tight cage on top of it. The constructor flew away and a loader blew up the cell door in attempt to kill them. No one was injured and allowed them to chase W4RD-3N.

Bandits were either fighting loaders and getting torn apart or committing suicide. One unlucky bandit was impaled by the arm of a loader. They all watched the horrific brutality that bandits endured from the Hyperion loaders. They finally caught up to W4RD-3N, it made turrets and more powerful loaders. Including an awesome loader. The six of them, began to engage the Hyperion detachment. Maddox narrowly dodged the laser W4RD-3N produced. The loaders started to overwhelm the. Axton's turrets were damaged, Maya was growing weary of using phaselock. Salvador, was losing focus with his dual wielding. Zero's deception was only distracting enemies for a short time. Krieg's buzz axe needed cleaning bad as too many machine parts ended up inside the mechanism. Maddox knew that he'd need to use more energy in order for everyone to survive.

"Can you all cover me for a bit?" Maddox shouted to his teammates.

"How long is a 'bit'?" Axton asked dodging a swing from a PWR Loader.

"Not long… I hope." Maddox muttered the last bit under his breath.

"We can try."

Maddox leaned against his cover. Putting his weapons on the ground. He closed his eyes focusing on what he needed to do. Suddenly, his body turned to dust and rushed inside of W4RD-3N.

W4RD-3N.exe

Jets: Offline

Laser: Online

Missiles: Offline

Nuke: Offline

Construction: Offline

Containment: Online

Containment Subject: Crimson Raider Leader Roland

Orders: Hold Subject For Extraction

Allegiance: Hyperion

setChange Orders(Release Subject)

W4RD-3N.exe

Jets: Offline

Laser: Offline

Missiles: Offline

Nuke: Offline

Construction: Offline

Containment: Offline

Orders: Waiting

Allegiance: Hyperion

setChange Orders(Destroy Hyperion Personnel)

W4RD-3N.exe

Jets: Offline

Laser: Offline

Missiles: Online

Nuke: Offline

Construction: Offline

Containment: Offline

Orders: Destroy Hyperion Personnel

Allegiance: Hyperion

setChange Allegiance(Crimson Raiders)

W4RD-3N.exe

Jets: Offline

Laser: Online

Missiles: Offline

Nuke: Offline

Construction: Offline

Containment: Offline

Orders: Destroy Hyperion Personnel

Allegiance: Crimson Raiders

Maddox reformed out of the dust he became and looked to see W4RD-3N burn the awesome loader with its laser. All around were destroyed loaders, cut by lasers or destroyed by missiles. The battle was soon over, the loaders did not expect for the constructor to turn on them.

"Well… that's not very fair." Jack said surprised and disappointed.

Suddenly, a meteor came from Helios and destroyed W4RD-3N.

"Quickly, we need to get out of here before Jack launches more meteors!" Roland commanded heading for the fast travel station. Quickly everyone went through and traveled to Sanctuary.

They all followed Roland to HQ as he went upstairs to talk to Lilith. Gaige caught Maddox as he walked in behind everyone, noticing he was running fairly low on energy. "How much did you use?"

"Enough to get us out alive. Roland has a plan to take down Jack. You should go listen."

"Wait… are you leaving right now?"

"I'll wait by the entrance of Sanctuary for you to get done."

"I'm on crutches, you want me to come all the way out there on these?"

Maddox smiled realizing he was an idiot. "You're right, I'll wait down here for you."

"Okay…" Gaige left and slowly managed to get up the stairs.

Maddox leaned against the wall. He really didn't want to go. But he also had no choice. He needed to find and stop this other him. Most likely he was in a vault and Maddox would need to get his car and armor, then find a way to defeat him or it. He was definitely going to miss Gaige. He liked listening to her as she nerded out about Death Trap or any mechanical thing, he liked her company and just every single thing about her. All her flaws had made her flawless.

Gaige appeared as she slowly made it down the steps. She crutched over to Maddox as he got up. "I'll walk you to the entrance." Gaige told him.

Maddox nodded as he walked slowly so Gaige could keep up with him. "Where are you going to go? You're not leaving Pandora right?"

"No, I'm not leaving Pandora. I… was gonna head West and see where that took me."

Eventually they got to more steps and Maddox just picked her up bridal style so she didn't need to deal with them. He began to put her down but she stopped him. "No. Carry me over there."

Maddox chuckled. "What happened to walking me over there?"

"I wouldn't call using these things as walking." She indicated to her her crutches.

"True, true." They arrived at the entrance. Maddox gently set her down as she leaned against her crutches. "Well, here we are…"

"Yea…" They both looked on both trying to find an excuse to stay or get him to stay. "I really don't want you to go."

"I don't wanna go either."

"So then why are you?"

"You know I have to."

Gaige let out a defeated sigh "...yea I know. I wish things could be different. I'm so happy that I had to run to Pandora and meet you." Gaige tried to fight back tears, of course Maddox had noticed her pain. Maddox simply hugged her. Yet again no words needed to be exchanged, she couldn't hold her tears back from him. He was her shoulder, her friend, and her boyfriend. He was about to leave her, they would stay together of course. But he would be gone physically. She heard the humming of his heart. Slightly slower than it normally was. He brought her eyes to meet with his, even he had tears silently falling from his own somewhat rapidly blinking eyes. Even still he brought his finger up and wiped away her tears. Her crutches leaned up against her body as she stood on her good leg with her arms around him. He rested his hand on her cheek and she leaned her head back on him.

"Goodbye…" Gaige reluctantly said.

They began to part as Maddox returned her with a goodbye of his own. His eyes still blinking. Gaige began to smile, "Why do your eyes blink faster and your heart hum slower when you're low on energy? Shouldn't the blinking be slower or humming be faster?"

Maddox returned a smile of his own. "You know I've been this thing for three years and I still don't understand why it's like that."

"Hmm… funny." She grabbed her crutches and began to turn back for the HQ.

"What's Rolands plan?"

"Jack wants to wake up this old warrior from a vault and whoever wakes the warrior controls it and whoever controls the warrior controls the fate of the universe. Or did he say world?"

"Wait what?"

"Roland wants to open a vault with an ancient warrior before Jack does."

"A vault? Ancient Warrior? Can decide the fate of the world and maybe the universe?" Maddox began to peace puzzles in his head.

"Yea… I just said that. Is everything ok?"

"Yes, yes. Everything is great." Maddox began to get really excited.

"What is going on?"

"You don't see it? Roland wants to open a vault. Noitalihinna might be stuck in a vault. The vault contains an ancient old warrior. Noitalihinna is extremely ancient and is a warrior. The warrior controls the fate of the universe. Noitalihinna has destroyed whole star systems and has annihilated every thing he's come across."

"Who's Noitalihinna?"

"Oh sorry, Noitalihinna is the name of this other me."

"Wait what?"

"Noitalihinna is the thing I'm trying to hunt."

"So are you saying that you won't be leaving?!" Gaige asked understanding his excitement and becoming excited herself.

"I will not be leaving!"

"That's great!" Gaige let out a happy laugh as she jumped back onto Maddox dropping her crutches and then she winced in pain as she landed on her bad leg. "Ahhoowww. That wasn't a good idea."

"No. No it wasn't. I can fix your leg though. If you want me to."

"Could you please?"

Maddox knelt down so he was eye level with her waist. He reached his hand to her calf as a soft red glow emitted from his palm. Gaige felt her calf go completely numb. It was a very odd feeling. She could feel from her knee up and ankle down. But in between there was nothing.

"Do you want it to scar?"

"Uhhh, no not really."

"Ok, no scar."

Soon the red glow faded and Maddox stood back up. Gaige slowly felt her calf again. She put some weight onto her leg and felt no pain. No soreness, she looked down and the skin was like new baby skin. "It still kinda hurts." She lied smiling.

Maddox saw right through it. "Quit lying, if you want me to carry you then say that."

Gaige blushed with a smile. "Can you carry me anyway?" She batted her eyelashes at him.

"I don't see why I can't." Maddox picked her up bridal style again and he made his way towards the HQ.

"What about the crutches?"

"Someone will give them to Zed."

 **Three things.**

 **1\. Yes I know I lied Maddox isn't leaving anytime soon.**

 **2\. I don't know if you guys really care that much for the paragraphs of each characters loot so I decided to just update the inventory and leave it at the end of the chapter.**

 **3\. No Noitalihinna is not The Warrior. The Warrior will still be a giant lava dragon thing. I just needed to give Maddox an excuse to stay.**

 **Again sorry it took so long.**

 **Inventory Update:**

 **Axton**

 **Rifle- Jakobs AR**

 **Acidic Droog- Vladof Sniper**

 **Acidic Peacemaker- Pistol**

 **Flame of the Firehawk Shield- Maliwan Legendary (Constant Fire Nova when completely depleted)**

 **Electronic Lobbed MIRV Grenade- Torgue**

 **Ranger Class Mod- larger magazine and more critical hit damage**

 **The Afterburner Relic- longer boost and faster recharge time.**

 **Maya**

 **Electronic Vanquisher- Vladof Launcher**

 **Electronic Vexation- Maliwan SMG**

 **Electronic Minigun- Dahl AR**

 **Nova Shield- Torgue**

 **Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**

 **Fox Class Mod- higher burn chance and damage**

 **Salvador**

 **Electronic Room Clener- Bandit Shotgun**

 **Electronic Renegade- Vladof AR**

 **Acidic Punishment- Maliwan Launcher**

 **Standard Shield- Tediore**

 **Electronic Homing Effect Grenade- Vladof**

 **Beast Class Mod- more health and faster reload**

 **Elemental Relic- boost fire damage**

 **Zero**

 **Sniper - Dahl Sniper**

 **Incendiary Fighter- Vladof Pistol**

 **Electronic Spread- Tediore Launcher**

 **Explosive Spike Shield- Torgue**

 **Weakened Rubberized MIRV Grenade- Torgue**

 **Sniper- More Sniper rifle damage and more critical sniper damage and less shield capacity**

 **Gaige**

 **Electronic Rifle- Dahl AR**

 **Acidic Ace- Tediore SMG**

 **Hand Cannon- Torgue Pistol**

 **Booster Shield- Dahl**

 **Longbow Transfusion Grenade- Maliwan**

 **Sweetheart Class Mod- more team health**

 **Strength Relic- Stronger Melee**

 **Krieg**

 **Hulk- Torgue Shotgun**

 **Incendiary Compact MG- Tediore SMG**

 **Acidic Blaster - Vladof AR (E-Tech)**

 **Electronic Nova Shield- Maliwan**

 **Lobbed Acidic Effect Grenade- Vladof**

 **Torch Class Mod- more burn damage**

 **Maddox**

 **Blaaa- Torgue Launcher**

 **Acidic Projectile Convergence- Hyperion SMG**

 **Electronic Stret Sweper- Bandit Shotgun**

 **Explosive Spike Shield- Torgue**

 **Weakened Sticky Homing Bettie Grenade- Dahl**

 **Slicer Class Mod- plasma blades consume less energy**


	15. Chapter 15

**So I've had this done for almost a week. I just didn't have the time to transfer it over to because I had bad connection over the weekend and I have two track meets going on this week. (One yesterday and another tomorrow) (Posted on April 17th 2019) so busy week still. I'll also be traveling over Easter Weekend so... yea. Anyway this chapter is kind of a drag. I don't think it's as long my others because this chapter felt really forced. I would have just skipped over to fighting Wilhelm but that's next chapter and this one is just a couple more side quests. These side quests in particular I was never a fan of doing. Basically it's the loader that you have to find the body for. The group also splits in half to deal with the Rats that are a knockoff Ninja Turtle Group. I would have skipped this portion and wanted to. But something kinda important is starting to form. I'll just let you read now.**

Chapter 15: Back Into the Deep

"So where's this spy at?" Axton asked Roland.

"He is in the Tundra Express, he hasn't reported anything yet concerning a vault key, but if you want to send someone to scout with him go ahead, the rest can stay here and rest up or finish up some bounties." Roland told him.

"Ok, I'll go ahead and go scout with him." Axton left to the Tundra Express, leaving Maya in charge.

Salvador was sleeping, Maya was hanging out with Lilith, Zero was surprisingly in Moxxi's bar, Krieg was walking around on the outside of Sanctuary… no one really knew why. Maddox was sitting on the couch while Gaige laid on the couch with her head in his lap. Maddox played with her reddish brown locks. She left her hair down more often while at Sanctuary. She didn't mind having it down and she knew that Maddox preferred it to be left down. Of course when going in battle she would put it up since she didn't want anything catching it.

Tannis walked into the room. "Oh I've finally found one of you... well two of you. Turns out some Hyperion test subjects had escaped their test labs. They want to integrate back into society, but unfortunately that's impossible. I need you to eliminate them."

Maddox let out a sigh "Great… more work." Maddox muttered under his breath. "Yea. We can do that."

"Good, you'll need to bait them out. I already ordered some pizza for them. Go get your vault hunter friends and kill those savages." Just as quickly as she came Tannis left around the corner. Gaige slowly sat up. Her beautiful hair falling just past her shoulders. She leaned onto Maddox's shoulder.

"We can't have a day where we can just chill cane we?" Gaige said clearly annoyed.

"Nope I guess not, but I think eventually we can finally just settle down and not have to worry about getting blown up by a moon shot."

"True, instead we'll just have to worry waking up to a psycho bandit."

Maddox let out a little chuckle. "That's Pandora for you."

Gaige stood all the way up. Maddox stood up just a little after her. Catching her before she walked off into a tight hug. She didn't resist and happily complied with it. "I have to put my hair up. While I do that, can you get the others?" Gaige asked.

"Of course."

"Thank you."

"No problem."

Reluctantly Gaige broke their blissful embrace; she left to do her hair. Maddox walked over to Moxxxi's and picked up the pizza while grabbing Zero. He eventually found Maya and got her. He showed back up at headquarters. Gaige was ready and grabbed Sal. On their way out, Krieg had joined them. They rode technicals towards the Bloodshot Stronghold.

Finally arriving at the stronghold, Maddox noticed that the bandits haven't repopulated the place. "This should be easy. There aren't many people here."

"Still though. I've seen this place too soon." Maya said what they were all thinking.

They all walked through the stronghold. Very rarely they would encounter a bandit. Eventually they ran into a couple of bandits attacking a loader. They killed the bandits and then the incapacitated loader.

"Wait!" The six of them stopped as that wasn't from any of them. Gaige turned to see the battery core of the loader on the floor completely intact. It would light up as it spoke. "You have defeated me. I would like to help you."

"Gaige you know how robots work. Is it lying?" Salvador asked her.

"I make robots; I don't understand robots that aren't made by me!" Gaige defended herself.

"Well, you have the most experience out of everyone here." Maddox pointed out.

"I have no idea. How about we just trust it?" Gaige blew off.

"What about the test subjects?" Maya asked.

"Yes we must split up/Some of us help the robot/others kill the rats" Zero answered in his haiku. Gaige shifted uncomfortably.

"Gaige, me and Maya will help the robot. The rest of you take care of the rats." Maddox planned, and Gaige let out a relieved sigh. Zero nodded taking Salvador and Krieg with him.

Resuming their march through the stronghold and easily dispatching leftover bandits, Maddox and his group finally made it to the ramparts. Gaige held the core in her hands, for she figured it was fragile. "Over there, plug me into that constructor bot so I may help you."

Gaige walked over to the offline machine. She looked around for a spot to plug it into. There was nothing on the back, nor was there anything on the bottom. "I can't find where to plug it in."

Maddox walked over to help her, quickly scanning the large machine for a place that would take a core of some sort. He smiled, as he found what he was looking for. It was on top; which was something Gaige wasn't quite tall enough to notice. "It's up here." Maddox said as he climbed on top of the machine. Gaige handed him the AI core, and he plugged it in.

Maddox got off of the Constructor as it sprung to life. "This things feels and moves like an obese turtle. Now you must die!" The Constructor aimed towards Gaige as it charged its laser. Maddox moved quickly; pushing her out of the way just in time. However, the laser struck Maddox. For a while his modified skin was able to handle the focused intense heat, but Gaige knew that even his reinforced body wouldn't withstand it forever. Gaige quickly climbed back onto the Constructor and reached the core and yanked it out with all of her might. The Construtor shut off and its laser stopped firing. "I'm sorry, I did not want to attack you. I don't know why I attacked you. Will you still help me find a new body?"

Gaige didn't answer the robot and ran to Maddox's side, setting the core down. Maddox's skin was blackened from the laser, but just as quickly as it had been burned on it began to rapidly heal back to normal. "It attacked you, so it's your call if we try again with it." Gaige told him while he looked over his arm. Maddox looked at the core a short moment of distrust appeared in his eyes, but it eventually subsided.

"Let's give it another chance."

Gaige slowly nodded and picked the core back up. Maya silently followed the younger two. "I detect an offline WAR Loader. Perhaps because it is similar to my old chassis, I will have more control of my actions."

"Aren't those a little more dangerous?" Maya finally spoke up.

"Yea, but I think we can trust it." Maddox restated.

"It tried to kill Gaige and then you."

"I know."

They found the shutdown loader and this time Gaige found the core slot. She put the core into its spot and the Loader springed to life. Then it began to unleash a barrage at Maya. Maya barely made it into cover before her shields broke. Gaige and a Maddox began shooting the legs of the Loader and pulled the core out. Maddox was winding up to throw the core over the edge but yet again it's voice cried out. "I'm sorry, I don't want to hurt you. Perhaps you should plug me in where it is impossible for me to harm you." Maddox pondered on this for a moment. Winding up yet again but this time Gaige snatched it out of his hand.

"The radio in Moxxi's bar. That's where we can put it." Gaige explained.

The three all walked towards the fast travel station. Maya was clearly mad at Maddox for trusting the machine. Zero and his group had already gotten back from their mission. Maya decided she was done for the day; she left to do her own thing. Maddox went with Gaige to put the AI core in the radio.

Gaige easily found a little port to plug the core into. The radio turned on and the AI spoke. "Die!" The radio began to blast this really awful music.

"Turn that off wouldja sugar." Moxxi shouted at them.

"Does this music demolish your will to live? Does it make you want to die?"

Maddox pulled the core out. "What do we do with it?"

"You have defeated me. I give up trying to kill you. I truly wish to help you now. You can make me into a shield or a gun."

Maddox and Gaige looked at each other and instantly agreed. It would be a gun with no control over the trigger.

 **See told you. Pretty much a drag the whole way through. The important part that came up was easy but also hard to spot. Maybe you found it and don't understand what the point of it is. Don't worry I'll get to a chapter where it'll make it really obvious. But that's a much later chapter. Like I'm talking after Defeating the Bunker it shows up. Anyways...**

 **Inventory Update:**

 **Axton**

 **Spitter- Torgue AR**

 **Acidic Droog- Vladof Sniper**

 **Acidic Peacemaker- Pistol**

 **Flame of the Firehawk Shield- Maliwan Legendary (Constant Fire Nova when completely depleted)**

 **Sticky Longbow Electric Bettie- Dahl**

 **Veteran Class Mod- Increased Reload speed and larger magazine**

 **The Afterburner Relic- longer boost and faster recharge time.**

 **Maya**

 **Revolver-Jakob's Pistol**

 **Acidic Subcompact MG- Hyperion SMG**

 **Incendiary RokSalt - Unique Bandit Shotgun (Faster reload speed, better accuracy, higher damage, and faster fire rate)**

 **Nova Shield- Torgue**

 **Sticky Homing Acidic Standard Grenade- Tediore**

 **Nurse Class Mod- faster team health regeneration**

 **Salvador**

 **Electronic Room Clener- Bandit Shotgun**

 **Electronic Renegade- Vladof AR**

 **Acidic Punishment- Maliwan Launcher**

 **Standard Shield- Tediore**

 **Rubberized Weakened Transfusion Grenade- Maliwan**

 **Beast Class Mod- more health and faster reload**

 **Elemental Relic- boost fire damage**

 **Zero**

 **Sniper - Dahl Sniper**

 **Incendiary Fighter- Vladof Pistol**

 **Electronic Spread- Tediore Launcher**

 **Explosive Spike Shield- Torgue**

 **Weakened Rubberized MIRV Grenade- Torgue**

 **Sniper- More Sniper rifle damage and more critical sniper damage and less shield capacity**

 **Protection Relic- Increase Shield Capacity and faster recharge rate**

 **Gaige**

 **No Change in Inventory**

 **Krieg**

 **Weakened Wellness- Hyperion SMG**

 **Acidic Launcher- Tediore Launcher**

 **Shotgun 1340 - Unique Hyperion Shotgun (It talks)**

 **Electronic Nova Shield- Maliwan**

 **Longbow Acidic Effect Grenade- Vladof**

 **Torch Class Mod- more burn damage**

 **Maddox**

 **Blaaa- Torgue Launcher**

 **Acidic Projectile Convergence- Hyperion SMG**

 **Electronic Stret Sweper- Bandit Shotgun**

 **Explosive Spike Shield- Torgue**

 **Lobbed Acidic Effect Grenade- Vladof**

 **Slicer Class Mod- plasma blades consume less energy**


	16. Chapter 16

**Sorry for the long wait again...**

Chapter 16: Oops

"V-1 to V-2. I repeat V-1 to V-2"

Maya picked up the radio. "Axton, why are you using code names? We don't even know which one of us is V-2."

"Obviously V-2 is you Maya and why not? Come one we should have nicknames for each other."

"Nicknames shouldn't be V-1 or V-2 you moron." Maddox shouted from the other room. "I would know. The people that I used to work for had those nicknames for everyone. Mine was X-624."

"Yea, let's not put numbers on us." Gaige stated.

"Ok enough with the nicknames." Maya laughed, "Any news?"

"Yes actually, Mordecai is telling me that a train is going to be arriving soon and it has the vault key inside it. You guys better get over here." Axton informed them.

"We're on our way." Maya turned off the radio. Immediately everyone gathered up their gear and left.

The ride to the Tundra Express was much longer than any of them expected. Maddox and Gaige both sat in the back of the technical.

"So before you got your abilities what was life like on Rehtona?"

"It was a pretty normal life. I ran Track, Crosscountry, played soccer, and participated on the drill team."

"Were you any good?"

"Drill Team I was one of the best cadets on the deck. Cross Country and Track I was decent. Soccer though. Phew I sucked. I had this one friend- his name was Daniel a fast but short Mexican boy who could get past everyone on the team with the ball."

"That's impressive, but uh… what's a Mexican?" Gaige asked.

"Oh uhh… it's just a group of people that come from a certain place on our planet."

"Oh… isn't that a little… I don't know… rude?"

"I don't know. If it was they didn't really take offense because they knew it was true. That's where they came from. So that's just what we called them."

"Angel are you getting all of this?"

"Yes, Jack I've already scanned every known system and the planet Rehtona Noisnemed doesn't ever show up. But he did say that the colony was forg-"

"Yea I know what he said. But still… something isn't right about him. All of these things he says about it is too similar to our home planet. Back when the Earth wasn't united under one rule. Just in case send a satellite in that area see if it picks up any civilization on the so called moon."

The group had made it to the Tundra Express. Fighting through a few varkids. Eventually they made it to the large mouth of a cave. Inside was Axton sitting at a small table watching a young girl skip around a captured psycho. "All around the stactus plant, the stalker chased the bandit. The bandit thought twas all was fun" she sang as she got on top of a large pump and began to push it down with all of her body weight. "POP!" The psycho now exploded into pieces. "Goes the bandit." The group all stared, this was their help?

"Oh haaiii!"

Maddox wasn't sure why, but the girl was unsettlingly familiar to him. Krieg stared at her too for a while. Either thinking the same thing or just mindlessly staring. Probably the latter.

"Roland told me you needed help jacking the train and I'm yo gal. Listen uup butt faces I need you to go into that bandit fort and get my badonkadonks."

"Uhhh, you're what?" Axton asked for clarification.

"My badonkadonks."

"She means missiles." Mordecai announced over the radio.

"If we're hijacking a train why are we getting missiles?" Maddox asked.

"Are you questioning my methods?" Tina ran up to his face.

Maddox through his hands up in a defensive manner. "No no, just uh… just wondering."

"It's a surprise and no plan is good unless there's an explosion in it."

Salvador laughed. "I like this Chica."

"Enough talk. It is my nap time and you have badonkadonks to get."

"Of course." Zero spoke.

They all went over to the fort. Almost immediately became under intense heavy fire. All of them ducked behind barricades or whatever they could find to prevent from getting shot. None of them daring to peak above their cover.

"What do we do? We're all pinned down." Axton pointed out.

Maddox took a chance to peak and was immediately greeted with a bullet hitting right on his barricade flying concrete dust in his face. "Agh, I don't know. Wait. Zero use deception to get to a better position to see if you can take some out." Maddox looked over to where Zero was crouching. He didn't move. "Zero? Zero did you hear me?" Suddenly, Zero's body flickered and Maddox understood. Sniper fire rained down on the bandits from a nearby cliff side. Zero was already up there.

Eventually the bandits began to duck in cover from being hit themselves giving the Vault Hunters a chance to reposition themselves. Gaige deployed DT and ran into battle behind it. Shooting at whatever she could while staying near DT. Axton managed to sneak behind enemy lines and deployed two Sabre turrets. But even with their small victories the number of bandits was still 15 to 1. Maddox shoulder charged a bandit on the walkway. The Marauder momentarily lost his balance and tried to retaliate by tackling Maddox. However, Maddox ducked out of the way and the Marauder plummeted to the ground below. Maddox dropped a grenade next to the Marauder and ran off with the explosion going off behind him. While running Maddox spotted a valve against the wall. "Hey guys I found a valve. I'm going to turn it on and see if it does anything to help us." Maddox spoke over the radio.

"Roger that." Gaige replied.

Maddox took hold of the valve and began to turn it. A loud siren shook the whole place. More and more bandits came running towards them.

"What did you do?" Axton shouted angrily over the radio.

"I didn't know what it would do!"

"We need to regroup. Everyone move towards the entrance. There we don't need to worry about bandits coming behind us."

Maddox jumped over the railing landing on a suicide psycho. He jumped and hardened his front as the bomb exploded sending him flying towards the entrance. Gaige rode in on top of DT while everyone else arrived on foot. The bandit number tripled and they were all surrounded. Maddox looked over to his right and within seconds Gaige's shield went out and eventually she fell over and started bleeding out.

 **Sorry I know this one was a short one. I just wanted to get one out to you.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Found a working time to work on this for a while.**

Chapter 17: Build Up

 **Previously**

Maddox looked over to his right and within seconds Gaige's shield went out and eventually she fell over and started bleeding out.

"Mi gniog ot llik lla fo ruoy sdneirf." (I'm going to kill all of your friends.) The entity got a very devious smile. "Eht lrig lliw eb eht tsom elbayojne." (The girl will be the most enjoyable.)

 **Now**

Gaige was out cold and severely bleeding, if she didn't get medical attention she would die. Maddox wanted to go berserk right then and there, but he needed to keep level head to make sure his other teammates wouldn't get hurt. However, nobody was in position to move to her. None of them could peak out of their cover without getting hit. There were just too many of them. The only way they could make it out of this was for some chance of luck or for Maddox to risk his energy levels. Something he wasn't running very high on. Maddox looked around, Axton's shield went out, Maya was too exhausted to use her phase lock. Zero was reserved to hiding behind his cover and blocking the occasional bullet with his sabre. Salvador's left arm was shot, Krieg was… taunting the enemies but immediately lost his shield, and Gaige was bleeding out.

Maddox knew that he could get away, that he could run and survive. But his team wouldn't. There was no way they could. Maddox could easily just turn into dust and float away. But he wasn't going to leave them behind, besides he made a promise to Gaige that he would stay. Maddox took a deep breath and let it out as his eyes glowed red. Time slowed to a near standstill. But Maddox didn't slow time, he made his thought process and his movements to a rapid speed. Even in this state he had to move fast. He couldn't keep up his amp for long. Maddox vaulted over his cover and ran to the nearest enemy, then the next, and the next, and the next until he couldn't keep up his speed increase. He began to get slower, his mind process moved slower and slower to reality speed.

His speed returned to normal, no longer boosted by his power, but he was behind enemy lines. He could start doing some damage back here. Five marauders, all using some kind of AR. Maddox ran at them, his eyes blinked red for a split second. A marauder turned to punch him but Maddox ducked under his arm and kicked another marauder behind the previous marauder. Two marauders came at once and and Maddox moved out of the way so they would punch each other. A fifth marauder began to shoot at Maddox, who grabbed the first marauder and used him as a meat shield. Four marauders were left in this small group. Maddox's eyes flashed red again. He was running low on energy. But he had enough to take everyone out. Maddox allowed himself to be tackled and when he hit the ground he phased right through it. The marauders all looked around confused. A hand reached out of the ground and grabbed a marauder's ankle and crushed it. The marauder howled in pain as he fell and was impaled by a glowing red sword. Maddox popped out of the ground behind the last three and shot one with his arm cannon. The last two turned to face him but were met with hands on their heads. Their heads collapsed and exploded as Maddox squeezed. His eyes flashed red again.

Maddox looked over to wear his team was held up. His eyes grew a menacing angry red color because of what he saw. A lone goliath had it made to Gaige and picked up her crippled body and was ready to slam her on the ground. In the blink of an eye Maddox sped across the battlefield and stole Gaige from the air. He held her bridal style and let out a huff of anger and was using his body to heal injuries. Gaige shifted a little in his arms and opened her eyes to see Maddox's angry red eyes staring at the goliath.

"Maddox?" Gaige spoke up afraid that something was wrong with him. He looked down at her and smiled. His eyes returned to normal and reassured her.

"Everything's alright. Just let me handle this. You need to rest." He set her against the wall and as he turned away his face grew angry and his eyes began to glow again. Like a flash of light Maddox had ran towards the goliath and knocked its helmet off. The goliath's tan skin began to grow red with rage.

"Big mistake, big go-" The goliath wasn't even able to finish. Maddox had reached into its neck and pulled out the skull with the spine attached. Maddox threw the spine at an awesome psycho and instantly impaled it. Gaige felt a powerful wind and watched as dust and some barriers flew towards Maddox. Maddox began to elevate, old cars, dust, even some enemies all flew around him like a destructive tornado. But for Gaige and the rest of her teammates. All they could feel was a soft wind. They weren't being pushed or pulled.

The cyclone began to spin faster and faster enemies were beginning to puke up blood at the speed. Suddenly the center created a powerful explosion. Decimating the remaining bandits and leaving the place and absolute reck. But Gaige and her friends were unharmed. Maddox slowly descended and began to fall backwards. Gaige ran forward and caught him. "You used too much didn't you."

"Possibly." he said smiling. His eyes continued to blink red, much quicker than before. " just go get Tina's badonkadonks."

"Stay here."

"Planning on it."

Maddox could feel himself slowly slipping into unconsciousness. He watched Gaige run off with his other teammates further into the stronghold. "I got you through the front gate. You guys can handle the rest." Maddox slumped over, his eyes slamming shut.

"Emit dna emit niaga, uoy syawla dne pu kcab ereh." (Time and time again, you always end up back here.) Maddox could hear his prisoner speak.

"Tuc eht rettahc, s'tel tsuj teg siht revo htiw." (Cut the chatter, let's just get this over with.)

"Ho, M'i ton gniog ot thgif uoy, I t'now niw." (Oh, I'm not going to fight you, I know I won't win.)

"Neht tahw od uoy tnaw?" (Then what do you want?)

"Ekilnu em, uoy t'nac ees otni eht erutuf, ereht si a emit gnimoc erehw I lliw evah lortnoc." (Unlike me, you can't see into the future, there is a time coming where i will have control.)

Maddox could see his world start to burn brightly. He put up his hands to try and block the light. Soon the light faded and he opened up his eyes to a wonderful sight. Gaige was sitting down next to him. His head was in her lap. She hadn't noticed that he was awake yet. She seemed to be lost in thought and Maddox began to wonder what was going on in her head.

"Hey." He said softly.

Gaige looked down and smiled. "Hey."

"How was the mission?"

"It went pretty well after you did your cyclone. The leftover bandits were all to injured to put up a decent fight. Tina said that we're way ahead of schedule so she sent us on little missions to get a tea party. We had to get guests, one of them was a bandit so the rest of the bandits tried to come "uninvited." Then now is now."

"Wow, I was out for a while."

"Yes you were." She slugged him in the shoulder as hard as she could.

"Oww, what was that for?" Maddox complained holding his shoulder.

"Don't ever scare me like that again."

"Huh?"

"You used too much energy again and when I came back you had passed out and I thought you were gone."

"Oh… sorry"

"You better be." She said smiling.

"I'm sorry I sold out your family pleasaaaaahh," a captured psycho screamed in pain as he was electrocuted. Maddox stood up looking at the fried corpse of the bandit. Tina's face was also a different expression. She didn't have the usual crazy smile look on her face. Her face was twisted in sadness and anger. Maddox suddenly, caught visions of the girl he saw in his vision.

Gaige could sense that an alarm went off in Maddox's head. She went up to him and leaned on his shoulder squeezing his hand. "What is it?"

"Its Tina… she looks just like that girl in my vision."

"Its ok, it probably isn't her. That girl is probably dead. She just makes you think of her because their aren't that many young girls running around on Pandora."

"Yea.. you're probably right."

"Hey Maddox?"

"Hm?"

"I've been thinking, if the vault monster that Jack plans to awaken isn't the monster that you're looking for, then I'm going to help you find and defeat the monster that you are seeking after."

"Thanks for the offer, but it's too dangerous for you and for anyone else. He could kill me or worse… bring It out."

"It?"

"Something I should have revealed a long time ago. The crystal inside of me doesn't just keep me alive and give me power. My crystal is a prison cell. One for a creature way more powerful than the beast I'm hunting. The power I have comes from It. The crystal harvests Its power and allows me to use some of Its. But like all prisons there's a way out. If I take a penetrating hit through my torso then It gets out. It uses my body to destroy everything."

"Even more the reason why I'm going to help you."

"You can't, if you got hurt because of me…"

"Alllrrright the train is almost here, lets go hijack a train!" Tina shouted excitedly.

"We'll talk about this later." Gaige said as she walked away.

Maddox followed them up to a platform where two large dolls were strapped to the "badonkadonks."

"3! 2!" Tina shouted as the missiles fired off. One missile flew off into the track causing it to break while the other disappeared over the cliff. "I got bored." The second missile exploded and the train barreled into the river below. They all ran up the train where the latest missile hit.

Fighting their way through the wreckage wasn't hard. Most of the loaders were already damaged. But the big fight was still coming.

 **Cliffhanger! I'm not good at those.**


	18. Chapter18

Heyo back again. 1st boss fight for the group! Get reading!

Previously

"Even more the reason why I'm going to help you." - Gaige

"You can't, if you got hurt because of me…" - Maddox

\--

"Say goodnight." Rouf said as he began to pull the trigger. Just then a red streak went straight through Rouf's head. Rouf fell to the ground as the red streak faded away. Axton followed the streak and it led it a black figure who turned and phased through the wall.

\--

"3! 2!" Tina shouted as the missiles fired off. One missile flew off into the track causing it to break while the other disappeared over the cliff. "I got bored." The second missile exploded and the train barreled into the river below. They all ran up the train where the latest missile hit.

Fighting their way through the wreckage wasn't hard. Most of the loaders were already damaged. But the big fight was still coming.

\--

Chapter 18: Wilhelm

The vault hunters dropped off a short ice cliff. There was a nearby badly damaged fast travel station that emitted yellow holograms instead of the usual blue. A little next to the station was a chest.

"Everyone lock in load. I've got a feeling there's something big on the other side." Axton warned.

"I agree. I'm getting some very powerful energy readings just on the other side. It could be the vault key." Maddox confirmed.

Once they were all ready, they walked out into a large opening. Train parts were buried in the snow. In the middle was a fully intact train car.

"That car right there. There's something powerful in it."

Suddenly, the car began to move and float above the snow. It was too late before any of them noticed that it wasn't floating but a human that was mostly machine was picking it up. The car was hurled at the group. No one moved, they couldn't go anywhere.

Maddox knew that was something he had to stop. Maddox stepped forward in front of them. Forcing all of his energy to move into his legs, arms, and back, this caused them to harden like stone. The train car flew into Maddox, and he caught it sliding back and barely stopping it from crushing the rest of his team. Maddox transferred his energy into his arms and launched it back at Wilhelm. Wilhelm shot a laser beam from his eyes and cut the train car in half.

"We need some sort of plan!" Maya shouted.

"Agreed." Axton commented.

Maddox wasn't processing anything they were saying. He had one objective and one objective only: Kill. In the blink of an eye Maddox rushed forward at incredible speed. His friends calling out to him to stop but they couldn't get through to him. A EXP Loader seemed to pop out of nowhere and knocked Maddox off balance. Wilhelm used this to rapidly rotate and slam Maddox into the wall. Maddox stood up and ran at Wilhelm again. Wilhelm launched missiles at him and as Maddox was focused on dodging the missiles Wilhelm once again slammed him into the wall.

Maddox still got up and ran at Wilhelm again. His friends could only watch him and felt powerless. They knew they needed to do something, but they didn't know what they could do.Maddox was repeatedly slammed against the wall and was repeatedly still getting up. However, each time was taking a heavy toll on him. Maddox staggered back up and was hit by Wilhelm again but this time he was flying over the ice cliff. Gaige could rest knowing that he was safe now. Wilhelm wasn't planning on him getting away that easily. He launched a grapple and hooked onto Maddox and slammed Maddox against the ice wall again and again and again. Maddox couldn't stand and knelt on his hands and knees coughing. Maddox knew that if he was human he would already be dead. Wilhelm turned his attention away from Maddox and primed a barrage of missiles towards his friends. Just before the fatal missiles were unleashed Wilhelm felt a small ping on his ankle. He turned his attention to see Maddox weakly punching at him.

"You leave them alone."

"So you're still able to stand? I can fix that." The barrage of missiles had a new target and all launched at Maddox. Maddox was against the ice wall again, this time he couldn't move. His eyes violently blinking red signaled the end of his fight.

"How am I supposed to win?" Maddox spoke in a quiet voice. Wilhelm stopped and Maddox's friends began to listen. "I'm supposed to take on Noitalihinna who has destroyed whole galaxies? I can't even beat a cyborg. I can't win. I alone am not strong enough to win."

Wilhelm had a huge cannon on his back and began charging it and aimed at Maddox. "This railgun will pierce through your chest and destroy your heart. You will die."

Maddox closed his eyes and prepared for his end. Gaige ran in and grabbed the grapple that was attached to Wilhelm and threw it at DT who caught it and spun with enough force to cause Wilhelm to turn and fire off the cannon in a harmless direction. Wilhelm made an attempt to swing Gaige into the wall but found that DT had not only pulled so hard to make Wilhelm turn, but also caused his arm to be completely severed. Gaige swung Zero's sword into Wilhelms leg breaking important circuitry and causing him to collapse Gaige proceeded to empty a mag into his head. Wilhelm was dead.

Gaige reloaded her mag and walked over to Maddox. "This is why I can't let you face him alone." She knelt beside him and he put in a lot of effort to look at her. Her eyes were brimming with tears. "I don't want to… no... I can't afford to lose you. I'm going to help you face Noitalihinna. We're in this together."

Maddox tried to speak, his energy was too low. He took way too much punishment. Gaige summoned DT and had him shock Maddox to restore some of his energy. "I want you to help. But I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if you died for my agenda."

"Is that not what dating someone is supposed to mean?" She whispered. "To sacrifice for your partner?"

Maddox fell silent. He knew she was right. "I-"

"Maddox… I want you to know that you're not alone anymore. Those days of being alone on Rehtona are over. You don't need to run away anymore." She spoke softly, tears streaming down her face while she smiled.

Maddox captured her into a tight embrace. Gaige buried her head into his neck. "I know. I'm just afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

"Afraid to get too attached. I'm afraid that one day you will all leave me alone. So I try to separate myself as much as I can so when the day comes I know I'm already prepared."

"I promise. I won't ever leave you."

"Don't make a guy a promise. If you know you can't keep it."

"This is one I won't break." Gaige stood up along with Maddox. Maddox put his arm around her for support. Maddox spotted a powercore on the ground which most likely came from Wilhelm.

"That's gonna keep Sanctuary safe for a long time." The gang picked up the power core celebrating and left towards the fast travel station.

"Tori, the target is confirmed. It's Maddox." A black armored figure with glowing red lines decorating his armor spoke into his helmet radio.

"Good work Ethan. We just need to find a way to get him alone."

There you have it. I know the other members were not really involved much. I couldn't find a way to bring them in. Just to let you know the Inventory Update is still the same. They haven't gotten any chance to rest yet and if you know the Borderlands 2 story line they aren't going to be able to do it when they get back to Sanctuary.


End file.
